116 



LIEUTENANT MICHLER's KEPORT. 



of which I have just spoken runs immediately along the linO; and is the only practicahle one 



connecting California and Sonora. 



Before completing the work immediately on the river, a party had heen sent out to make a 

 reconnoissance in the direction of the line, and principally to examine the country for water. 

 Anxious to have no delay, as the hot weather was fast coming on, and the river-bottom having 

 hecome so infested with mosquitoes as to make life unendurable and labor of any-kind impracti- 

 cablcj we commenced prolonging the line without awaiting the return of the reconnoitring 

 party, Mr. Phillips, in the performance of this duty, reached the Tinajas, but there found 

 very little water, and what there was, difficult of access ; and, although directed to some 

 new water-holes by a Papago Indian, still he only found sufficient to last a short time for a 

 small number of men and animals. Mr. AlemaUj of the Mexican commission, also endeavored 

 to travel the road ; but meeting the party first sent out, and hearing their report of the entire 

 absence of water from the river to Sonoyta, was compelled to turn back. 



The escort and provision train likewise made an attempt, but it was found almost impossible 

 to advance more than a few miles with the heavily-loaded wagons. My own success was little 

 better ; starting from our camp with a light spring-wagon and six good mules, I managed to 

 make twenty-five miles in twenty-eiglit hours' constant travel ; an express then reached me 

 from Mr, Aleman, informing me of the unfavorable accSunt of the search for water. 



Not finding it feasible to carry out our plan of operations, the parties of both commissions 

 retraced their steps to the Gila. Every effort had been made to prosecute the work, under the 

 most trying circumstances, but we found it useless to contend against impossibilities. It was 

 then agreed by Mr. Jimenez and myself ^^to cease operations at the west end, and to proceed 

 along the Gila to the east end of the azimuth line, there to fix the point of intersection of the 

 parallel 31*^ 20^ north latitude with the 111th meridian west of Greenwich, and afterwards to 



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trace tlie line from that point westward as far as practicable." 



On May 5tli both parties, American and Mexican, toot the road leading up the Gila ; this 

 journey was a long and tedious one, our mules having heen thoroughly used up in their service 

 on the desert. During the whole winter they had had but scanty grazing, and to find any at 

 all had to be driven ten miles up the Gila. As there are but three or four families of whites 



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living on the Colorado, and those only in charge of ferries, they did not pretend to cultivate the 

 soil and raise grain ; and at the post they had only sufficient for their own use. For some little 

 barley, shipped at San Francisco and brought round by water, I paid twelve cents a pound, and 

 for hay one hundred dollars per ton. 



. The condition of our animals compelled us to make but short marches each day, to enable 

 them to recruit. 



As the road we followed has been travelled and reported upon by others, I shall not dwell 

 long upon the subject. It continues the greater part of the distance in the valley of the Gila, 

 occasionally leaving it for a few miles to go upon the sand plains bordering the bottom-land, 

 or where hills jut into the water's edge, such as " Los Metates," " Lomas Negras," or " Lomas 

 del Muerto," either following round their bases or crossing them. The last named is really 

 the only difficult place in the road, but a trying one for mules and wagons. It is 110 miles 

 above Fort Tuma, and consists of steep, rugged buttes, which, in a low stage of the river, can 

 be avoided by crossing to the other side, but in high water must be passed over. Here are 

 several severe ascents and descents, one at an angle of forty-five degrees, where it is necessary 

 to let wagons down by ropes ; they are also covered with vesicular rocks, making them exceed- 



