SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 245 
alfalfa is also raised. A view of part of the irrigated district is shown 
in Plate 34, B. The Indians who occupy this reservation form a 
picturesque element among the various people who make up the 
population of the Yuma region. Usually the day trains in Yuma 
are met by Indian women offering beads and other trinkets. The 
Yuma Indians have cultivated the river flats for many centuries but 
retain many primitive methods. The Fort Yuma Indian School, a 
prominent building on the farther bank of the river, has an attendance 
of about 200. A statue of Garcés in front of the chapel here com- 
memorates the heroic Franciscan who, after martyrdom at his mission 
here in 1781, was interred with respect by the Indians who had 
murdered him. His body was later transferred to Mexico. (See 
p. 187.) Kino estimated that there were 6,000 Yuma families. It 
has been estimated that there were 3,000 Indians here in 1853; in 
1932 there were 842 under the Fort Yuma Agency. The word Yuma, 
from ‘‘Yahmayo,” son of the captain, was applied erroneously by the 
early Spanish missionaries; the Indians call themselves Kwichan. 
A mile west of Araz siding the San Diego & Arizona Railway, a 
part of the Southern Pacific system, branches to the southwest and 
eae goes by way of Mexicali, Calexico, and El Centro, 
Elevation 156 feet.  2¢TOSS Imperial Valley, and through the beautiful. 
eans 1,756 Carrizo Gorge to San Diego. (See p. 287.) Near 
Araz the railroad reaches the western edge of the river 
flat and begins an ascent of about 150 feet onto the higher terrace or 
general desert level. On this grade it passes through long, deep cuts 
exhibiting the nature of the sand and gravel deposits that make up 
the terrace. At one point this material is extensively quarried for 
road making. Half a mile beyond the siding, on the south side of the 
highway, south of the tracks, are the ruins of the old Arazstage 
station on the river bank, constructed in 1856. The material is 
adobe. 
From a point near this place a branch road follows the west side 
of the Colorado River, which here makes a great bend to the south and 
in less than 3 miles enters Mexico near the village of Algodon. 
Southwest of Araz siding is the isolated Pilot Knob, or Cerro de 
Pablo, near the west bank of the river, consisting of a mass of lava 
lying against granite and schists. Near it in 1780 was established 
the mission of San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicufier under the admin- 
istration of Padre Garcés. The colony consisted of 20 settlers, 21 
soldiers, and 12 laborers, with their families. In the Indian revolt 
of the following year two resident missionaries and practically 
all the soldiers and colonists were clubbed to death, and the women 
and children were made captives. On the slope of Pilot Knob dur- 
In the hes the term ‘‘adobe”’ | these sun-dried bricks are made and 
(colloquially ‘“‘doby”) is commonly | for a structure made of them. 
used both for the sandy clay from which 
miles. 
