Further up, in order to determine
whether the military posts of New Mexico and Utah could be reached, and
their supplies transported by the Colorado. Instead of calling upon Captain
Johnson and chartering his steamboat, the Colorado, Ives ordered his
steamer constructed in Philadelphia, and shipped in sections via the
Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, and thence around Cape Lucas into the
Gulf of California, to the mouth of the Colorado River. Yet he was able to
report, doubtless with a clear conscience, that Johnson's company "was
unable to spare a boat, except for a compensation beyond the limits of the
appropriation."
Ives' Report and Accompanying Pictures. Ives' report is a most
interesting document, and the pictures that accompany it, made by
Mollhausen and Eggloffstein, especially those of the latter artist, are
wonderful in their imaginative qualities. They are no more like the Grand
Canyon than are the visions of Dore, yet they afford a good idea of the
impression its vastness and sublimity made upon an artistic mind.
Starts up the River. Ives ascended the river, passing Johnson on the way in
the Mohave Valley, a few miles above the Needles. The latter had gone to
ferry Lieutenant Beale and his outfit across the river. So in reality he
was ahead of Ives, for he entered the Black Canyon to the highest point
attainable by steamers before Ives did, and thus got the better of the man
who had refused to hire him and his steamer.
