ALONG THE DESERT BORDER. 143 



into the Pacific through the Virgin and Colorado. By a route 

 four hundred miles long we had crossed the Great Basin, and we 

 now stood again on the Pacific slope, which we had traveled over 

 five weeks before. We soon reached the valley of the Santa 

 Clara, a rough, sandy flat a half a mile in width, well timbered 

 along the stream with cotton-woods, and flanked by bleak and 

 rugged mountains. Evidences of a tremendous flood, which 

 had swept this valley the preceding spring, were continually 

 visible in the trunks of trees and driftwood that strewed the 

 bottom. The trail had been obliterated by the rushing waters, 

 and we were now traveling over an exceedingly rough road, 

 which had been barely laid out by the few wagons that had 

 passed down the valley since the freshet. These freshets, which 

 occur every spring from the melting of the snows which have 

 accumulated among the mountains during the winter, come 

 pouring down the tributaries of the Santa Clara in torrents, to 

 join their volumes in its valley, between whose rocky blufi's 

 they rush headlong to the Pacific, carrying devastation in their 

 wakes. A rain-storm came on us in the afternoon, and we 

 were obliged to make an early halt, camping at the base of a 

 . precipitous steep whose summit arose perpendicularly a thou- 

 sand feet above us. 



About half way up the side a cave was seen. To this I 

 ascended, and found it to be a deserted Indian home, as signs 

 of fire were visible on the floor, and the sides of the chamber 

 were blackened with smoke. 



The morning of the second of December dawned upon us 

 clear but cold, and a strong wind was blowing through the dreary 

 valley. We made an early start, and continuing down the 

 river over a trail which offered numerous obstructions to our 

 weary animals, by w^ay of deep sand, rocks and bad fordings, 

 we came upon a party of travelers encamped by a little nook 

 on the roadside. They were in a sorry predicament, indeed, 

 as two of their wagons had broken down, and they would be 



