The herald., 1893-10-22
THE TREACHEROUS COLORADO.
The Exciting Adventures of
Four Men in a Boat.
A Strange Country, Full of Curious
and Wonderful Things.
The Impracticability of Navigating the
Colorado River, as Explained by
One OF the Party Now
in the City.

On the 18th OF July last party oi
four adventurers started in small open
boat to navigate the Colorado river from
Yuma to Angel island, in the gulf Of
Lower California. The voyage was
fraught with many perils and hardships
the boat was poorly fitted for such SER
vice, the river itself was known to be
treacherous in the extreme, the climate
of the country was most unfavorable,
and the danger from many other sources
great. Yet this voyage was undertaken
simply for the purpose of seeing the
country and was safely carried out.
After trip Of 400 miles, requiring 80
days OF time, the party returned again
to Yuma, having successfully overcome
all the hardshipe and perils of the trip,
and met with many strange and varied
adventures.
The four members of the party which
made this venturesome trip were j. w.
Baker, B. G. Tompkins, Lieut.. r. Il. L.
Robinson and Severin Anderson, a
Swede, and the only sailor in the party.
Lieut.. Robinson is now in Los Angeles,
and yesterday consented to give re-
the trip and necessarily brief descrip-
tion of the wonderful country passed
through.
''First let me say" began Lieut.. Rob-
inson, ''the trip was undertaken with
full understanding, by all OF the party,
of the risks to be run and the advan-
tages to be gained. We were not out for
pleasure exactly, and neither we're we
out for profit. We simply wanted to
see the country, and were perfectly will
ing to take the consequences.
"Our boat was 81 feet long, AZ feet
beam and 20 inches deep, decked half
over. We carried on the start Chin
ese eng sail but this was soon lost over
board and Anderson was obliged to rig
up sail OF his own make.
"We had intended on the trip down
to land in many places and make short
excursions inland. This idea we were
obliged to abandon. 1t was utterly i'm
possible to even cut with an axe pas
sage through the dense growth of tules
and brush willows which lines the Colo
RADIO on either side. The valley through
which the river flows is from 25 to 80
miles in width and covered with this
thick underbrueh. The river has cut
manv deep channels through the valley
and in these old channels it ia impossi-
BILE to travel.
1.-THE numerous beds of quicksand
were also constant source OF danger to
us, and kept us confined to the boat in
places where we otherwise might have
been able to go ashore.
''But perhaps the worst obstacle we
had to contend with was the presence of
hordes of small mosquitoes. Our netting
proved to be of no value whatever in
keeping them off. They would crawl
through it in swarms. They staid with
us until we reached salt water, and it
was the loss OF sleep which they occA-
stoned for us that made them particu-
larly dangerous. IA
s''At Painted Mountain our first trip Of
any extent on land was made. For Is
miles over a perfect salt desert we
tramped, carrying our supplies of water
and provisions.Je Ap0 every step our
weight caused us to break through the
crust of salt and our feet sank in from
six to eight inches of black mud. The
whole country around is totally unin-
habited.
"That is the greatest country for mir
ages that have ever seen. at any time
of the day there will be visible in any
direction a perfect mirage. Around
about us on every side W could see trees
and lakes and even towns and cities
perfect in all their outlines.
sat the mouth of the Colorado we
found the ruins of an old ship yard
abandoned in 1872. The decaying hulks
of five steamers are there, partly sunken
in the mud, dismantled and disigured.
The first of these boate was brought from
San Francisco to this place in 1852. 1t
was designed to establish line of steam
ere to ply the Colorado to Fort Yuma.
Twenty years ago the idea was aband-
oned and the river has never been nav
Sgated since except by trappers and
hunters.
''In 1857 Lieutenant Ives OF the United
States army attempted to explore the
Colorado in a small boat called the Ex-
plcrer. The boat WAS brought to the
Bhipyard, at the mouth of the Colorado,
in sections and then put together. The
lieutenant and his party got as far as
Yuma and there the Explorer went to
pieces on mud fat. Lieutenant Ives
finally succeeded in navigating the
river ae far ae the Needles.
Zone of the strangest features of the
country around the mouth of the Colo
RADIO river is the tides about tEis time
every month; near the full of the moon
occurs what lie called the bore. The |
hore is solid wall of water several feet
high rolling shoreward and up into the |
mouth of the Colorado, makius itself |
felt for distance of 20 miles up the |
riyev. An attempt to float any boat in
the mouth of the river at that time |
would be fatal.
"When the tide is low the mud flats
extend for miles on each side. and then
when it rises they are submerged to a
considerable depSh.
Governor Hughes of Arizona recon-
mended in report to the secretary Of
the interior that the Colorado be made
navigable by the government. Any one
who has ever passed down the Colorado
river would understand how utterly i'm
possible it would be to accomplish this.
In many places the river shifts go that
no definite bed can be found. The great
rise that takes place in June of every
year changes the couree sometimes as
much as six or eight miles. 1t is thus
impossible to make the river navigable
ss the water can never be impounded.
"A story told our party by the Coco
pah Indians best illustrates this: One
year, they said, party of them were
compelled by General Ahdrade to leave
their wickiups and farms on the
Sonora side of the river and remove to
the Mexican shore. In another year the
river had changed its course 30 that
the wlckiups and the farms and the In