A Desert Fishing Pool 389 



traordinary rise of the Rio Colorado, and gangs 

 of men were put at work on the river with pile 

 drivers and sand bags endeavoring to divert the 

 water, with final success due to the genius of 

 Mr. Epes Randolph, President of the West Coast 

 Mexican road. The Colorado has been known 

 to rise thirty-three feet, and its flow at this time 

 was thirty-five thousand cubic feet per second. 

 I crossed it when it was twenty-two feet high, a 

 raging torrent, menacing in its velocity, chang- 

 ing the face of the country for miles. The railroad 

 property, for a while seriously interfered with, 

 belongs to the Southern Pacific, which runs for 

 twenty-eight miles two hundred and sixty-seven 

 feet below sea level at this point. There are 

 nine miles of track from two hundred to two 

 hundred and fifty feet below sea level, six miles 

 between one hundred and one hundred and fifty 

 feet below, five miles between fifty and one hun- 

 dred feet below, and about four miles fifty feet 

 below, all of which would be at the bottom of 

 a deep sea if the gulf should claim its own at 

 any time, which is not within the possibilities. 

 The total mileage of the railroad below the sea 

 level is 60.3 miles. The bottom of the lake about 

 three miles from the end of the salt deposit is 

 280.8 feet below the level of the sea. 



This, in all probability, will be the last Salton 

 Sea. The lower part of the desert has been 

 settled, the towns of Imperial, Calexico, and 



