Most profoundly impressed by the death toll presented to him on 

 every side, he instituted a campaign for the erection of durable signs 

 directing to the location of water-manna in this wilderness. 



PLATE 5. 

 The festering Cholla. 



His propositions in this behalf were emphatically and materially 

 seconded in Los Angeles by the Chamber of Mines and Oil and the 

 Chamber of Commerce, by the local press generally and the Los 

 Angeles Daily Times published a most valuable map indicating the 

 valleys, mountain ranges and sources of water supplies throughout 

 these arid regions. 



The matter was presented to the California Legislature and an 

 appropriation of $5000.00 was granted for the construction of signs 

 indicating the position of springs and water-holes. 



Bills for an appropriation for this purpose were repeatedly rejected 

 by the Congress of the United States, in many sessions, but finally, 

 after years of taxing labor, urgent petitions and the presentation of 

 such facts, concerning which there could be no doubt, an Act was 

 passed and became a law, whereby the Secretary of the Interior was 

 authorized "to discover, develop, protect and render more accessible 

 for the benefit of the general public, springs, streams and water-holes 

 on desert and public lands of the United States and in connection 

 therewith to erect and maintain suitable and durable monuments and 

 sign-boards at proper places and intervals along and near the ac- 



33 



