GOLDEN BULLETS. 189 
Needles, where the projecting spurs of the Mojave Moun- 
tains, which wall in the Colorado on either side, impinge for 
probably six to eight miles directly on the river. Then comes 
the Chemenevis valley, about five miles wide, and very similar 
to the Mojave valley. Below the mouth of Bill Williams 
Fork there are occasional narrows, with wide and long 
‘stretches of bottom-land, sometimes, as at La Paz, thirty 
miles wide. This alteration continues to Fort Yuma. 
‘Whipple estimated the Colorado valley to contain, from 
Fort Mojave, south, 1,660 square miles of arable land, 
without including the southern desert—that part of the 
Great Basin lying south of the Morongo Range—which might 
be rendered fertile by means of irrigation.” 
Before considering the mineral productions of this section 
of the route, I will conclude the accounts of its physical 
characteristics with Dr. Parry’s testimony :—“ In point of 
fact, without taking into consideration the undeveloped 
mi neral wealth locked up in her granite mountains, central 
Arizona comprises as large an extent of habitable and pro- 
ductive country as any other section west of the agricultural 
basin of the Mississippi.” 
The Mogollon ranges, which reach as far north as the Rio 
pla, are found, by the united testimony of all explorers who 
nave dared to” traverse this section of the Apache country, 
0 be very rich in gold and other minerals. It is here 
hat Aubrey reported having met Indians with golden 
bullets. ‘‘They are,” said he, “ of different sizes, and each 
Indian has a pouch of them. We saw an Indian load his 
4) n with one large and three small gold bullets to shoot a 
abbit.” 
None of our surveyors were fortunate enough to be able to 
rroborate this report; but they obtained seven or eight 
