388 Recreations of a Sportsman 



here all night, observing in the morning a re- 

 markable illustration of the illusive nature of 

 sand. The fall which they had landed to avoid, 

 in six hours had travelled half a mile up-stream. 

 The current was now a small edition of the 

 Niagara River. The body of water under full 

 force was running down the desert hill, carry- 

 ing the skiff into the Salton Sea. Here it 

 stranded on a treacherous quicksand, and for 

 hours the men worked to reach solid land under 

 a temperature of 120 or 130. The scene was 

 terrifying. The heat caused great evaporation, 

 and mists were constantly rising and whirling 

 into the air and strange mirages forming every- 

 where, out of which the distant mountains rose. 

 After a vast amount of labor the plucky boatmen 

 reached the salt works, having demonstrated 

 that the Salton Sea came from the overflow of 

 the Kio Colorado through New River, making 

 one of the most exciting trips ever made west 

 of the Colorado. 



This was fifteen years ago. Since then the 

 water disappeared and the salt works were again 

 in operation ; but again the Indians have taken to 

 the mountains, and from Mount San Jacinto the 

 eye now rests upon a vast sea, which stretches 

 away, covering many square miles of the desert, 

 filling it for miles with the largest overflow ever 

 known. 



The trouble was due as before to the ex- 



