t. 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, authorised 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 hazardous and well-nigh impossible,
coming down with the current? The leader of this superfluous endeavour
was Lieutenant Wheeler, of the Topographical Engineers, who had been
roaming the Western country for several years with a large escort.
For some reason, Wheeler seems to have been disinclined to give Powell
credit for his masterly achievement. On the map published in his Report,
under the date 1879, TEN YEARS AFTER POWELL'S TRIUMPH, he omits his name
entirely, and he also fails to give Ives credit on the river, though he
records his land trail. In the text I fail to find any mention of Powell
in the regular order, and only towards the end of the volume under a
different heading. As the book gives an admirable and detailed review of
explorations in the West, one is completely at a loss to understand the
omission of credit to two of the most distinguished explorers of all.
Wheeler accepted White's story because one of his men who knew White at
Camp Mohave, "corroborated" it. How could a man who knew nothing about
the canyons give testimony worth consideration, for or against? Wheeler
had also been informed by O. D. Gass, who, with three others, had worked
his way up the Grand Canyon some few miles in 1864, that in his opinion
it was impossible to go farther than he had gone. Yet White had reported
this whole gorge as having only smooth water; his difficulties had all
ended at the mouth of the Little Colorado. Gass's experience was worth
a good deal as a gauge of White's story, and it proved the story false.
But Wheeler did not so consider it, and therefore prepared to make the
attempt to go beyond Gass. The latter was about right in considering it
impossible t