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possessed the following watering places 
—Wwells in name only as we understand 
that term. Traveling from San Diego, 
the first station possessing desert char- 
acteristics is in the Jacumba valley at 
the hot springs or Larkin station. The 
United States and Mexican boundary 
line divides this valley near its centre. It 
contains several thousand acres, useful 
mainly for grazing, with cottonwood and 
willow along the water, cat’s claw acacia, 
desert willow and the like desert vegeta- 
tion around the drier parts. Hot and 
cold springs side by side were formerly 
quite an attraction, but are no longer 
kept in order. 
Ten miles further, over the last rocky 
divide, brings us to the Mountain Springs 
—a solitary spring in a little ravine near 
the Rock House or Summit House of the 
old stage days. This is situated about 
half way down the side of the mountain 
and is good mountain water from out of 
the solid granite. The canyon leading 
from Mountain Springs to the sandy 
plains of the desert, at the eastern base 
of the mountains, in April, 1889, I found 
gorgeous in a multitude of bright flowers 
Mimulus, Gilias, Eschscholtzias and a 
host of others. Echinocactus cylindra- 
ceous stands on the sides of the rocky 
canyon like sentinels guarding the pass. 
The cat’s claw now and then asks you to 
“wait a bit.”? The lively lizards invite 
you to a game of tag—in which they are 
gure of victory. Now and then a rattle- 
snake may be found sunning himself in 
your path. Six or eight miles of this 
picturesque canyon road brings us to the 
open plain of granitic sand and wash, 
across which slow progress is made in 
the hot rays of the sun. The general 
direction now taken is nearly due east, 
and after eight or ten more miles are 
traversed we reach the first desert sta- 
tion of Coyote wells. 
At Coyote wells we first strike the allu- 
vium of the Colorado river—or what 
closely resembles it in character. The 
‘‘wells’’ originally consisted of holes dug 
in the clay by the coyotes, who cannot 
long survive without water. Man has 
improved them but little. The hole 
which supplied the party of six or eight 
men and as many mules in the spring of © 
1890, had been dug bya cattle man to 
fair proportion; but the water emitted a 
most repulsive stench during our entire 
stay, though there was little unpleasant 
taste to it, and it answered well for coffee 
and cooking. Later in the season it be- 
came so impure, and so thoroughly im- 
bued with alkali as to be unfit for man 
or beast, and perhaps would have been 
fatal if any had ventured to use it. Near 
one of the two mesquite trees at this 
place another little hole was dug out 
when I visited the place in the following 
October, and tolerably pure water was, 
and always can be, obtained. Scarcely 
a trace of the old adobe station house 
remains, and two small mesquite trees 
are the only land marks to guide the 
traveler to this place, and they cannot be 
seen at adistance of more than half a 
mile probably in any direction. 
Twenty-two miles due east (some say 
sixteen or eighteen miles only), is the 
station house at Indian Wells—Los Posos 
de los Indios. The only water is in la- 
goons filled at rare intervals by rains or — 
from New river’s channel, of which they 
are said to form apart. The fine red- 
dish-yellow clay is so thoroughly sus- 
pended in the water that it does not 
become deposited to an appreciable de- 
gree until all the water has become eva- 
porated. Without a guide one might 
readily fail to find the water holes at 
Indian Wells, as they are away from the 
station buildings. For a good part of the 
year they are credited with being dry, 
and should never be depended upon for 
a water supply. The banks of New river 
at this place produce a dense growth of 
mesquite and other vegetation, especially 
rank after a heavy rain or overflow. Cru- 
ciferous plants, only a few inches in 



