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J.J 



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Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



607 



-ascended the jJiluvlal bench, which we found very sandyj'and off 

 to our left, in the southea-st, we could see a very long sand-heap, 

 laying near the van of Bighorn mountain; the plain reached to the. 

 south and northwest, to the limits of the horizon, in places; in 

 others, 'intercepted by mountain peaks, which stoo"d upon the sur- 

 face, as if built, although fantastic in shape, steep, and rugged; the 

 road was loose, and hard upon the animals— the pebbles and sand." 

 We got into the bottom of the river about six miles out, whe^e we 



, found the travelling very bad, on account of the dry dust and brush. 

 Encamped about three-quarters of a mile from the river, opposite a 

 number of salt lakes, which were very miry; our animals, leveral- 

 of them, got in, and one tired mule did not get out. The difficulty 

 of finding the river kept the men late in the night before they got 

 through with getting water to cook with; these salt lakes would 

 not suit. Ducks and geese abounded. Distance, 16 miles. About 

 SIX mijes out, where we descended the diluvion, we passed a moun- 



isb basalt, and some evidence of displaced strata of 



f 



te 



^ ^ 



5 



We are approachihg the 



Our aairaals begin 



to show the effects of the hard service, and many of them no doubt 



Colo 



rado. 



a 



JSTovember ?1, (iS'a^Mr(fay.)— Marched at the usual hour, our ani- 

 mals looking bad, from the effects of cold and the saltwater which 

 they drank. After marching seven miles, we came to the river, 

 and watered. Along it, at this point, opposite to a four-tilrretted 



point of the mountain, on the north side, there ap- 

 pears to be all along the river a fair prospect for a 

 camp; three miles further, and we t;arae to a bot- 

 tom in which we found a fine camp for this country. 

 Grass enough for a halt, and the general determined to lay by for 

 the day. The thickets on the Gila here are very difficult to g£t 

 through at first, but the brush being Fr^montii, and mostly dead, is 

 not hard to break away. The cotton-woods on the river are on an 

 average one foot in diameter, and 25 or 30 feet high. The road 

 was bad to-day, impeded with loose stoHesof a sort of species 

 changing to mica slate. The mountains to our southwest arejcom- 

 posed of a loose-grained granite, which is so friable that it forms 

 grottos, or oven-shaped cavities in its sides, the roof of which has 



^. 



*>. 



-' T^ 



the form, 

 Suggest th 



in many cases, of the regular arch, 

 at itnproyeme'nt in architecture, if i 



which, in fact, would 

 t had not already been 



discovered. The granite is composed of a superabandance of 



quartz and mica. * 



jyove7nher 22, {Sunday.) — Marched at the usual hour, and contin- 

 ued down the Gila- On the left bank, the first eight or nine miles, 



