212 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



apparently at first keeping to the south of the pres- 

 ent Mexico-United States border. On reaching the 

 Cocopa Mountains they turned north and crossed 

 the Hne somewhere near Signal Mountain, finding 

 water, it is guessed, at what are now called Yuha 

 Springs. Travelling still north, the next camp, 

 March lo, was at a large cienaga where the water 

 and forage were so bad as to cause the loss of sev- 

 eral of their animals. This place, which they named 

 San Sebastian del Peregrino, is identified as the 

 Carrizo cienaga. 



At this point students of the records fall Into dis- 

 agreement. Some suppose that the expedition, keep- 

 ing on still north, rounded Santa Rosa Mountain 

 at Clay Point (where I had turned west for Seven- 

 teen Palms) and then turned northwest up what Is 

 now called the Coachella Valley, entering the coast 

 region by San Gorgonio Pass. Given our present 

 knowledge of the country, that would have been the 

 natural route, and many of the details set down by 

 the explorers suggest that it was the one taken. The 

 other opinion is that on leaving the Carrizo camp 

 the party struck northwesterly up the broad arm of 

 desert (which I had just crossed in another direction) 

 that leads by way of Borego Springs into Borego 

 Valley and Coyote Caiion; that they made their 

 way, by that canon and a branch of it now called 

 Horse Cafion, up to what is now known as Vande- 

 venter Flat. Whichever route they took they reached 

 high ground with good forage and water, and of the 

 place, wherever it was, the gallant Captain writes: 

 "This paraje [station] Is a pass, and I named it El 



