28 SAN FRANCISQUITO PASS. 
tion for .about ten miles, skirting the base of a chain of lost hills, which were about 600 feet 
high, we came to another spring, and a few miles beyond we found a third. We ascended 
several of the hills to get views of the surrounding country; and finally, after having gone about 
thirty miles east of the base of the Sierra Nevada, we turned back and rejoined Lieutenant 
Stoneman in camp: 
Subsequently, I came westward from the Mohave river to near the place where we turned ۱ 
back, and found the country presented the same characters, except that no more water was dis- : 
covered. Independent of the lost hills, the country is a system of inclined plains or slopes ; and 3 
although there is no serious topographical impediment to the construction of a railroad through | 
it, the grades would often approach 100 feet to the mile. There is no timber, the surface being | 
` generally bare, or covered with sage bushes, grease-wood, yucca trees, dc. Mr. Blake con- 
à fidently expresses the opinion that water can be obtained by boring. _ 
SAN FRANCISQUITO PASS. I 
Lieutenant Stoneman’s camp was near the entrance to the San Francisquito Pass, a pass 
through which the wagon-road from the Tejon descends from the summit of the Coast range to 
the Santa Clara valley. He had found no difficulty in conducting the wagon-train through the 
Cañada de las Uvas, and along the base of the mountains to camp, finding plenty of grass and 
EE 
LAKE ELIZABETH, SAN FRANCISQUITO PASS. 
water at short intervals. I made a survey of the San Francisquito Pass with odom 
barometer, and found it very difficult for railroad purposes, there being à grade of 457 feet for 
۱ 
eter and 
a mile, and over 330 for two miles. The wagon-road passes along and in the bed of a mountain 
