128 



SOURCES OF THE WATER ON THE DESERT 



animals passing over these trails exhibited both by the State of California and the federal 

 government. Where United States troops are constantly moving to and fro, and where mail 

 deliveries occur fortnightly, it would appear as if something more might be done to obtain a 

 larger supply of water. If two parties be approaching the same well, one strives to anticipate 

 the other, knowing or fearing the supply is not sufficient for both, and the carcases on the 

 trail show how the animals suffer by the deficiency. It would require but a small sum at the 

 outset, and a small annual grant, to form efficient wells, and to keep them so ; to widen and 

 deepen those already in use ; to sink additional ones at Cook's well. Alamos, and Sackett's 

 well ; to raise an adobe structure round them ; the travel over the desert would then be safe 

 and comparatively pleasant even in mid-year. Where the sinking does not require to be made 

 of great depth, as at Cook's and Sackett's wells, the well might be made of large diameter, so 

 that the delay from the slow infiltration might be lessened ; and in such case, as in western 

 Asia, the approach to the well might be by stairs in the inside. 



The statement has already been made that many of these wells, as in the central and lower 

 parts of the route, are fed by the Colorado infiltrating its waters through the loose sands and 

 clays. On which account it appears desirable that the number of wells be increased at Alamo 

 and Cook's well, and that new ones be made at Big and Little Lagoons, as there is a 

 large supply to draw from, though obtained slowly. Sackett's wells, on a higher elevation, 

 does not owe its water to this source, deriving it from a small under current between clay strata, 

 which may be the remains of small streams rolling from the sierra, and losing themselves in 

 the porous sands. This supply is, however, so sparing, the original stream so trifling and so 

 uncertain in its flow, and the annual fall of rain almost nothing, that, to make deep sinkings, 

 or artesian borings, on the desert, along the line of trail, would be likely to be a complete 

 failure. It is true that the conglomerate and sandstone of the sierra foot dip east under the 

 sands and clays, and form a trough or bottom ; but that bottom itself is porous and little re- 

 tentive, and so long as the fall of rain is small, the geological conformation is a secondary 

 matter in the forming artesian springs. The following abstract, taken from the meteorological 

 register kept at Fort Yuma, (for which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Abbott, U. S. A.,) 

 embracing seventeen months of the years 1854 and 1855, show the temperature and fall of rain 

 during that period at the fort. 



Fort Ydma.— Long. 114° 37' 29" W. ; Lat. 32° 42' 27" N. 



