CHAPTER XII 
Into the Jaws of the Dragon—A Useless Experiment—Wheeler Reaches Diamond 
Creek Going Up-stream—The Hurricane Ledge—Something about Names— 
A Trip from Kanab through Unknown Country to the Mouth of the Dirty 
Devil, 
W HILE our party, in September, was battling with the 
cataracts, another, as we afterwards learned, was starting 
from Camp Mohave on a perilous, impracticable, and needless 
expedition up the Colorado. How far this party originally ex¬ 
pected to be able to proceed against the tremendous obstacles 
I have never understood, but the after-statement mentions 
Diamond Creek as the objective point. That such a wild, 
useless, and costly struggle should have been allowed by the 
War Department, which authorised it, seems singular, more 
particularly as little new was or could be, accomplished by 
it. The War Department must have known that Powell, two 
years before, had descended the river from Wyoming to the 
mouth of the Virgen, and that he was now more than half-way 
down the river on his second, more detailed exploration, au¬ 
thorised and paid for by the Government. Lieutenant Ives 
had also years before completely explored as high as the Vegas 
Wash, and there were therefore only the few miles, about 
twenty-five, between that Wash and the mouth of the Virgen, 
which might technically be considered unexplored, though only 
technically, for several parties had passed over it. Then why 
was this forlorn hope inaugurated? What credit could any one 
expect to obtain by bucking for miles up the deep, dangerous 
gorge filled with difficult rapids, which Powell had found haz¬ 
ardous and well-nigh impossible, coming dow*' with the cur- 
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