146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



believed to be the wreck of a large ship imbedded in the sand, at a 

 spot which is watery and inaccessible during portions of the year. 

 A company left San Bernardino some time ago to solve the mystery, 

 but they could get no nearer to the object than four miles on ac- 

 count of mud. Another party has lately started, with an outfit by 

 which they expect to be able to reach the place. Florencio Islas 

 reports that the Indians assert the existence of a ship in the locality 

 mentioned. There are distinct water marks on the adjoining hills, 

 and enormous quantities of shells are swept into drifts and piles by 

 the winds. Mr. Hanks offered as a theoretical explanation, in the 

 absence of direct proof, that the alleged ship may be only a mass 

 of the curious travertine which forms in alkaline lakes on the plains 

 and southern deserts, and which grows into fantastic shapes like coral. 

 He had seen forms which could easily be mistaken for anything. 

 He exhibited some specimens from Owen's Lake. 



Prof. Davidson, in allusion to the assumption that the alkaline 

 valley surrounding the " ship " is seventy feet lower than the sea 

 level, stated that the field notes of a party surveying for the 32d 

 parallel railroad showed the level of the western edge of the desert 

 was 750 feet above the ocean. 



Col. A. S. Evans, on invitation, gave an account of his observa- 

 tion of the supposed ship. He had crossed the desert several times, 

 had seen the object once from a distance of ten miles, afterwards 

 from a point within three miles, and had from this distance examined 

 it with a glass. It appeared to be the hulk of a vessel, partly on its 

 side and partly buried in the alkahne mud that surrounded it. The 

 locality was a salt plain, which at certain seasons was covered with 

 water, and at others quite dry. He had observed the old water 

 lines on the surrounding hills, and was surprised at the drifts of 

 fine shells, spirals, such as are found in ocean beds. His impres- 

 sion was that the locality Avas above the present sea-level. The so- 

 called '• New River," which runs from the desert into the Colo- 

 rado south of the ship, might have been formed by an immense 

 cloud-burst, or water-spout, emptying on the desert, and cutting a 

 channel to the river, which the drifting sands are now closing up. 

 He mentioned several instances of water-spouts that had precip- 

 itated rivers of water, cutting large channels in the earth and des- 

 troying everything before them. He had heard the Indian story 

 of the ship, and the Indian tradition that the ocean once flowed in 



