4 THE SALTON SEA. 



fresh-water shells are so abundant in the lacustrine clay of the desert, especially at the 

 northern end, that they accumulate in windrows before the wind. The thin pearly shells 

 of anodonta are conunon in the clay about Indio. Four or five species of univalves, new 

 to science, were collected in 1853. 



The long-continued existence of such a lake is shown, not only by the fossil shells, 

 but by the ancient shore-lines and beaches, as fresh as if recently left by retiring waters, 

 and especially vivid and convincing north of the Delta, where they are visible for miles. 



At an outlying mass of rocks at the base of the main ridges of the Peninsula or San 

 Jacinto Mountains, a deposit of travertine marks the former height of the water by a 

 thick incrustation, covering the granite boulders from view. The foundation rock must 

 have been a small islet of granite projecting above the waves of Lake Cahuilla. It is now 

 known as Travertine Point, and its base was nearly reached by the rising waters of the 

 Salton Sea in 1907. (Plate 1 b.) 



By the courteous invitation of Dr. MacDougal, I had the pleasure of revisiting this 

 place in the month of May 1906. Crossing the valley from Mecca on the Southern Pacific 

 Railway, we visited the then rising Salton Sea, skirting it to Travertine Point, which 

 I again ascended half a century after its discovery and description in 1853. The old water- 

 lines and beaches were comparatively unchanged in appearance. Concentric lines of 

 sparse vegetation marked where the waters had stood centuries before. Looking out from 

 the summit across the Salton Sea, it was difficult to realize that the old-traveled trail across 

 the desert lay 15 fathoms deep under water, where before not a drop could be found. 



The former lake, the shores of which are recorded on the rocks and slopes of the Cahuilla 

 Valley north of the Delta, had an area of about 2,100 square miles. It was 100 miles long 

 and about 35 at its widest. It was first identified and described by me in 1853, in a commu- 

 nication to the San Francisco Commercial Advertiser, edited by J. D. Whelpley, in the winter 

 of 1853-54, and later in the reports of Exploration and Surveys for a Railroad Route from 

 the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, volume v. Its boundaries were then approxi- 

 mately shown and its origin explained. I have named it "Lake Cahuilla," from the name 

 of the valley and of the Indian tribe. (See pp. 24 and 25.) The name "Salton Sea" is 

 appropriately applied to the recent inflow and partial inundation of the valley covering the 

 salt-beds at Salton, but the ancient lake in its entirety requires a distinctive name. If any 

 precedent is needed for naming an ancient lake which has disappeared, it is found in the 

 naming of the old lake in Utah by Clarence King, as Lake Bonneville. Lahontan is another 

 example. The Great Salt Lake of Utah is the residual lake of Lake Bonneville much as 

 the Salton Sea is the residual lake of Lake Cahuilla. 



Lake Cahuilla occupied the northwestern end of the basin of the California Gulf — 

 that portion cut off from the sea by the delta deposits. The northwestern part of the valley 

 is also kno\vn as the Cabezon or Cahuilla Valley, so named from the Cahuilla Indians, who 

 have inhabited the oases and tillable fringes of the Desert from time immemorial. There 

 is a difference of opinion regarding the proper orthography of this name. It is ably dis- 

 cussed by Dr. David Prescott Barrows in the Elhno-Botany of tJie Cahuilla Indians of 

 Southern California. He writes: 



"A word should be said as to the pronunciation and spelling of the tribal name, C cahuilla. 

 The word is Indian, and the tribesmen's own designation for themselves, and means 'master' or 

 'ruling people.' There is some slight variation in its pronunciation, but the most usual is probably 

 kow-wee-yah, accent on the second syllable. The spelling has been various. That used by the early 

 writers and correct, according to the value accorded to II in Spanish-American, is that adopted 

 here — Coa-hui-lla." 



The writer, in the year 1853, when passing through the "Ka-wee-yah" or Four Creek 

 Country in California, with Lieutenant Williamson, in the endeavor to conform phonetic- 



