344 THE COLORADO DESERT 



the sprint; being the main reliance of desert travelers. The river, 

 hoAvever, passes directly throuirh the lake, and the loads of sediment 

 which it deposits at every checking of its course are gradually filling 

 up Cameron Lake and making it less relial:)le. 



But even after the great summer inundation of the desert has sub- 

 sided and Volcano T^ake has become exhausted, the Hardy continues 

 to be fed from the Ijreak in the Colorado through the Rio Padrones, 

 and throughout the year its channel contains water. In summer and 

 until late in the fall its current is from 100 to 200 Awards wide and 20 to 

 25 feet deep, witli a How of at least two miles an hour in the center 

 of the stream. Below the Sierra Madre it turns eastward, and joins 

 the main channel of the Colorado again just above the gulf. At times 

 of very high water a curious result occurs. Westward of the Cocopah 

 Mountains lies a great depressed plain, lower than the Cocopah Valley, 

 lower than the sea, the desert of the Laguna Maquata or Salada. Like 

 the Colorado, it was lateh' an arm of the ocean. At the southern end 

 of the Cocopah Mountains the Hardy sometimes overflows and sends 

 a current around the foot of the range and northward into this low 

 region, creating the Laguna Maquata. This desert of the Laguna 

 Maquata is a desperately arid and forsaken country, almost without 

 water, except during these occasional backsets of the Hardy. 



The main lines of travel — tiie old San Diego road through Jacumba 

 Pass and the Warner's Ranch stage road by way of San Felipe and 

 Carriso Creek — meet on their way to Yuma at Laguna Station, pass 

 b}' Indian Wells and Cameron Lake, and a few miles further on turn 

 southward into Mexico and follow the Alamo wash to the Colorado 

 River and Yuma. Scores of traveling teams continue to cross the 

 desert each year along these old emigrant and government roads. 

 The lower portion of the Colorado Desert, however, which lies in the 

 Mexican Territory of Lower California and which extends from the 

 boundary line to the gulf, is far less known and is, in fact, visited by 

 few Americans or Mexicans. It is known as the Hardy River coun- 

 try or the Cocopah country, from the Indians whose rancherias lie 

 along the Hardy Valley and the Lower Colorado. 



We visited this interesting country in August, 1899. The overflow 

 had been of unusual amount and of more than ordinar}'^ duration. 

 New River was still a swift, roil}' stream that defied crossing with 

 wagons. All night, in order to avoid the heat of the day, we had 

 been pushing our mule teams across the sandy plains and rough 

 mesas that make up those portions of the desert between the Sierra 

 and the rich, level, fluviatile deposits of the central depression. 



