GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 359 



i profit of 80 per cent., so that a field is opened for persons of ad- 

 venturous dispositions and great energy to reap a fine harvest in re- 

 turn for their labors. One important discovery made by Capt. Boiiet 

 is, that the Grand Bassein is, as has been conjectured by geographers, 

 a confluent of the Niger. As it was the dry season, they could not 

 explore the river as far as they wished, but in the rainy season there 

 are six feet of water, and the river may then be ascended, it is said, 

 50 Jeao-ues, to the cataracts of Abouesson. London Athenaum, 



Q * 



August. 



NEW RIVER IN CALIFORNIA. 



THE National Intelligencer for Jan. 18, 1850, contains a letter from 

 Major Emory, dated Aug. 20, 1849, from his camp, south of San Diego, 

 in which he says : 



" A very remarkable circumstance has occurred in that portion of 

 the country between the mouth of the Gila River and the mountains 

 usually called the ' Desert,' sometimes the ' Jornada.' A river, forty 

 feet wide and more than waist deep, has appeared in the middle of 

 this desert, affording delicious water to drink, making an oasis at the 

 most convenient spot for the traveller. 



" The first parties that came in by the Gila route arrived in San 

 Diego about the 20th of June. Amongst them were many intelligent 

 persons, who passed over the route of the advanced guard of the Ar- 

 my of the West in 1846, and who saw no river in the desert, and 

 suffered dreadfully with thirst. The parties that came in about the 

 4th of July first stated this remarkable circumstance of encounter- 

 ing a river where none before existed. But they were not duly 

 credited. Others have since arrived in great numbers, all bearing tes- 

 timony to the truth of the statement. 



-From the best information I can gather it appears, 1. The 

 event must have taken place between the 20th of June and 1st of July. 

 2. Its source is to the south of the route traced on my map. It crosses 

 that route about midway of the desert, or, more correctly, about 

 half way between the camp of the 26th and 27th of November, noted 

 on the map, and its course is a little east of north. 



" In connection with this subject, it may be stated that a fine fresh- 

 water lake has also been formed a few miles to the south of the camp 

 of November 26th. This is evidently from the back water of the Colo- 

 rado, the indication of the barometer in 1846 showing it to be near 

 the level of the Colorado. 



" My first impressions were that the new river was furnished from 

 the same source, and the barometric measurements of 1846 are not 

 adverse to this supposition ; but its direction nearly north, and other 

 circumstances, seem to forbid this conjecture. It cannot be supplied 

 from the mountains, which, in that parallel, and to the south, do not 

 reach the regions of snow. Whence it comes, and where it goes, is a 

 matter yet to be determined. 



" The existence of water must soon be followed by the growth of 

 grass; and, if the river continues, the route by the Gila, now much 



