CHAPTER VII. 



FROM THE 111th MERIDIAN OF LONGITUDE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



REPORT OF LIEUT. MICHLER 



rOET Tr3IA. — COtORADO A^D GILA. — SLOUGHS OU AEBOYOS. — SITE OF AN OLD PRESIDIO.— BOrxt)AKT Li^'E. — SAND BELT.— DESERT 

 PANORAMA OF MOUNTAIN RANGES.— MIRAGE. — BOTTOM lAND AND VEGETATION. — EARTHQUAKES AND MtD tOLCANOES. — CLIMATE 

 DUST STORMS. — INDIANS. — INITIAL POINT ON THE COLORADO. —TINAJAS ALTAS. — TULE. — SALADO. — AGUA Dt'LCE. — QLITOBAQUITA. 

 CAREZA PRIETA. — SONOYTA. — KOAD ALONG THE GILA, — MARTCOPAS. — PIMOS. — TUCSON. — SAN JAVIER. — TUBAC, — TOMOCACORI. 



EOPORI. — ARIBACA. — SIEBRAS ALONG THE AZIMUTH LINE. — PAPAGOS. " TIERRA CALIOTE*' OF SONORA. — SANTA MONICA.— SANTA 



ISABEL. — HEIGHT AND ABRUPTNESS OF MOUNTAIN RIDGES. — EASTERN SLOPE. — COLORADO DESERT, — NEW RIVER. — DISTANCES. 



Office Ujs^ited States and Mexica^^ Bouxdary Survey, 



r 



IVashington^ July 29, 1856. 



Sir : The following extract is taken from your orders to me, dated Washington, D. C, August 

 29, 1854 : *^ You are charged with the important service of running that part of the boundary 

 line between the United States and Mexico which comtnences on the Colorado river, twenty 

 English miles below or south of the junction of that river and the Gila, until you meet the 

 party running the line under my immediate direction, from El Paso westward." 



Having complied with your instructions, I now have the honor to submit to you a report of 

 the manner in which the work has been executed, and describe that portion of the country to 

 which our duty particularly confined us, atid the Indian tribes frequenting the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of the line. 



Sailing from New York on September 20, 1S54, myself and assistants proceeded, via Aspin- 



wall, Panama and San Francisco, to San Diego. All necessary instruments having been pro- 

 vided before leaving tlie eastern cities^ preparations for the transportation, subsistence, and 

 organization of a party occupied my attention in the last named jjlaces. These completed, we 

 left San Diego on the 16th of November, for Fort Yuma, which place was reached, after journey- 

 ing over mountains and deserts, on the 9th of December. This road, the most difficult I have 

 ever travelled for heavily-loaded wagons, has been already spoken of in your military reconnois- 

 sances in New Mexico and California, and a further description would be unnecessary. Its dis- 

 tance, measured with a viametcr, is 21 T miles. 



On the right bank of the Colorado, and in a bend opposite the mouth of the Gila, rises up a 

 low irregular hill, from seventy to eighty feet in height ; on the water-side there is a perpendi- 

 cular cliff; the other sides are less steep, but equally rugged. This hill is of Plutonic origin, 

 and presents a bleak, dreary appearance. The surface is covered with sharp, volcanic rocks, 

 cutting like glass under the tread, and is destitute of every form of vegetation, except the 

 euphorbia, a rank poison, and used by the Indians as an antidote against the bite of the rattle- 

 Bnake. Such is the site of the military post of Fort Yuma. This hill, cleft by the Colorado at 



