60 



with honey-combed pebbles of red and black volcanic rock. 

 In one place the pebbles had been scraped aside in lines as 

 far as we could see, leaving smooth, fairly distinct trails, 

 perhaps made and used by the Indians long ago. 



Near the edge of the sand dunes were several low cairns 

 of the volcanic stones. These, likewise, had no doubt been 

 built by Indians of old to mark the direction of the famous 

 Tres Pozos, the only sources of fresh water for many a long 

 and burning mile. Although there were formerly three of 

 these water-holes, as the name implies, two of them have 

 become filled up and nearly obliterated. The remaining well 

 is exceedingly hard to find. For many years, it is said, only 

 a few of the Indians have known its whereabouts. Old 

 Laguna, who has lived within twenty miles of it for most of 

 his days, has never yet seen it. After the development of 

 the Imperial Valley, some ranchmen, who were accustomed to 

 drive cattle northward over this desert, gave a mountain 

 Indian twenty-five dollars to show them the well, for until 

 that time their stock had had to travel forty-eight hours with- 

 out drinking. Captain Funcke also learned its location from 

 this Indian. He subsequently dug out the well so as to 

 increase the supply of water, and charted its position so 

 accurately by permanent landmarks as to be able to find it 

 with certainty. Lately it has become an important watering 

 place on the route leading southwestward from the Colorado 

 Delta, through the Arroyo Grande, to the Camino de la 

 Sierra, the old mission trail that runs along the roof-ridge 

 of Baja California. 



The only other water-holes in the lowlands of Pattie Basin 

 are along the western base of the Cocopah Mountains. Just 

 northwest of the southernmost point of this range, for instance, 

 is the Pozo del Coyote, the water of which becomes poisonous 

 unless it is bailed out often enough to prevent alkaline con- 

 centration. Fifteen miles further north, is the unfailing 

 seepage of the Agua de las Mujeres, which hes on the Indian 

 trail leading from Volcano Lake, over the Cocopahs, and across 

 the waste of the central Pattie Basin to the Palomar Canyon, 

 in the peninsular escarpment. MacDougal (1907) says that 



