3 The West American Scientist. 4 
rival even the Yosemite Surround- 
ed by walls three thousa nd feet 
more high, the queenly Washington 
alm (Washington fillfera) may 2 
found in groves, growi wit i- 
cal uxuriance beside quiet brooklets, 
o 
> 
® 
S 
= 
7 
ert (Hesperocallis u ata) astes 
its sweetness e desert air; every 
an orny bush produces its 
eauty, and a wealth of bril- 
lant annuals spring into brief exist- 
Dating June and July, 1888, the wri- 
“ose ig 1890 ("Th orado 
“+b harles Russell Souste pages 
che 919), 
Lyell says: —"“Geology is the science 
which 
es 
rted i modifying 
“we pire Bad external structure of 
850 the more depressed cat f the 
Colorado des seems ve been 
nown as e Cienega Diagtocree no 
perha he Salton 
Sea,but more usually Resipuiice as 
the Dry Lake: 
early sa eas 
in 1870 we are told by 
of gn period that the 
Colorado was in the habit of 
Bebreee OV werflowing its ks during 
the f summer fre shets. when es 
s Ited i 
the river has its so 
overfl 
sainatie 
attending era Indians in their agri- 
cultural Beg These fertile lands 
were forme a the sediment deposi- 
ted by eho waters of the Colorado 
river, and as the a ee in depth 
the overflow decreased; the in- 
creasing cotredeetaee of these overflows 
now of more rare occurr e, the In- 
dians were compelled oF 
t ountal 
round the northern arm of the desert 
In 1890 the desert Indian huts might 
yet b ou ng mesquite 
groves ew river, and in 1892 I found 
the Indians producing from the untill- 
ed soil crops of ane after an over- 
flow of some of the lands below the 
United States boundary. 
“Approaching Carrizo creek, we saw 
for the first time in man 
the mountains. From their sc 
ea x eaidues of fantastic and 
mitative forms sae ei of beds 
i in many 
places epee "itis ae pass ture and 
isplac nt. Whe they cu 
rough in he bed of Carrizo creek, 
ands of 
brown  ferruginous Menaul 
| 
