39 



foreground. Fields of wheat, corn, beans, pumpkins, and melons, 

 promising a luxuriant crop, met the eye in every direction. Com- 

 fortable houses and well built granaries, overflowing with the last 

 year's stores, testified to the provident affluence of the inhabitants; 

 and the robust appearance of the people themselves, with their well 

 developed frames and solid glossy limbs, betokened a high degree 

 of health, comfort and good living. That, for the number of In- 

 dians who now inhabit it, with their habits and mode of living, the 

 country is an excellent one there can be no doubt. Whether it 

 could ever be of much value to whites admits of a great deal. 



The shifting of the bed of the Colorado would be a cause of great 

 trouble in so narrow a valley. The changes occur with a rapidity 

 and to an extent that can be scarcely appreciated by one avIio has not 

 witnessed them. Having passed through the country in the spring 

 of 1854, while accompanying the expedition of Lieutenant Whipple 

 for the location of a railroad route along the 35th parallel, I had an 

 opportunity of observing the effects of this action, which were so 

 great as to justif^y the inference that every portion of the cultivable 

 bottom lands is liable to be in turn overrun by the river. To the 

 Indians, who have a certain community of property and interest and 

 no valuable improvements to lose, this is a matter of no vital moment, 

 but the white settler would be much discouraged from putting up 

 buildings and fences, and digging the ditches necessary for purposes 

 of irrigation, by the knowledge that at any day the river might direct 

 its course through his premises. 



Freshets occur at periodical intervals which subject large portions 

 of the valleys to inundation. For four or five months of the year the 

 rays of the sun are so intense and burning that no vegetation can 

 withstand their influence, and during the very early spring, some- 

 times, when at midday there is an ordinary summer temperature, ice 

 will be found at night. The growing season is thus rendered exceed- 

 ingly short, and a single accident to a crop would, for that year, be 

 without remedy. Seasons have occurred within a few years when 

 the Mojaves have been subjected from this cause to great privations, 

 and lost considerable numbers from actual starvation. 



The composition of difterent portions of the soil was carefully 

 examined by Dr. Newberry, the geologist of the expedition, and I 

 am informed by him that, though much of it is so constituted as to be 

 fertile, very large tracts in the higher parts of the valleys are so im- 

 paired by an excess of alkaline substances as to be comparatively 

 valueless. 



In forming an opinion of the value of the region some weight, too, 

 should be attached to the fact that the races upon the river do not 

 multiply. The records of the early Spanish explorers show a dimi- 

 nution rather than an increase of population since that period, and 

 for this there is no assignable cause, unless it may be the incapacity 

 of the country to sustain a large number of inhabitants. The Mojaves 

 have had no communication with the whites, excepting when a wan- 

 dering trapper or some exploring party has passed by their territory. 

 A peaceful, yet a powerful people, and guarded on every side by 



