THE COLORADO DESERT 347 



Coyote Wells, a historic water-bole, was passed at midni^-ht. Tlie 

 ruins of an old (cdobe hut and a couple of hacked niesquite trees 

 amid the rock and sand gave suggestion of its former importance as 

 a stage and emigrant station. The long, ghostly sand piles of .Super- 

 stitious ^Fountain gleamed faintly in the moonlight on the left, while 

 on the right, clear and beautiful, though miles away and below the 

 line, rose the ])laek dome of Signal Mountain. Daylight only made 

 more clear to the eye the sterile and unredeemable character of this 

 ])art of the Colorado Desert. Too high for the irrigating waters of the 

 river, rough and hard with l)roken lava, and desolate with wind-})iled 

 sand-dunes, it must always remain the abandoned area it is at ]~)res- 

 ent. By an im{)erceptible grade the wa}' led down into soil that pre- 

 sented the firm, dr}'' cla}^ deposits of the ancient lake. The discover^' 

 of the overflow was unexpected and sudden. There was a wide glint 

 of shallow Avatersthat looked like mirage, then sheets of green things 

 growing riotousl}^ in the warm air and wet soil, and a darker fringe 

 of mesquite that bordered lagoons and river. There were in sight a 

 thousand head of cattle recently driven in from the mountains, with 

 heads deeply buried in the succulent herbage. Large flocks of water- 

 fowl waded in the shaded margins of the lagoons and filled tlie air 

 witli their cries. The New River had overflowed its banks at this 

 point, the cattlemen assisting the break Ijy cutting in mes(iuite trees 

 and damming tlie current, and swift sloughs, some '20 feet wide, were 

 sweeping out over the plain and irrigating the region for miles. ( "am- 

 eron Lake and the lagoons were full to their l)rims and the country 

 could be traversed onl}' Ijy making latxjrious circuits. 



From Cameron Lake the trail turns southward, following in the 

 main the channel of the New River. The Cocopah Mountains )»ound 

 the valley for its whole length from the line to the sea on the west. 

 The slopes and sides of the range a[)pear to lie utterly devoid of vi-g- 

 etati(m. Weathering and wind have broken its long mass into vast 

 fragments of stone. Though occasionally exhibiting delicate tints of 

 color, its genei'al appearnnce is the sand gray and volcanic brown of 

 desert formations. Groves of ironwood grow along its l)ase amid tlie 

 rough detritus that forms great alluvial fans. I'^lscwhero along the 

 base of the range there is a vigorous growth of the " okatilla "' {I'hn- 

 (jiiiera itplnosn), curious clumps of long, whip-like stalks, devoid of 

 foliage, but covered everywhere with tliorns. Tlic creosote-bush 

 ( Con'llen tridenUitti) dots the sands. l''ar back in the canons are groves 

 of the tall and wonderful desert palms, indigenous to the Colorado 

 Desert region, probably the aeowiisJiiiKiloaia JiUimcutosa. 



