FORT YUMA. 135 
thirty or forty miles distant. The undulations are few 
and slight. Near our camp was a steep bank about 
sixty feet high, extending for miles, and descending to 
a great depression or basin, which appears to have 
been the bed ofalake. It was in this bed that the 
wells or pits were sunk from which we obtained water. 
About twenty-five. miles back from this place we 
crossed a ravine or arroyo some twenty or thirty feet 
wide, and about ten feet below the surface of the 
desert, that forms the bed of what is known as the 
“New River.” Three or four years ago, this ravine 
was filled with water, as well as a large basin connected 
with it. The water suddenly appeared here, and by 
passing emigrants was hailed asa miracle and direct 
interposition of Divine Providence, like the manna 
furnished to the Israelites of old. 
This phenomenon is now well known to proceed 
from the Colorado River, which some years rises to a 
great height, overflowing its banks and the adjacent 
valley, and sometimes running back through lagoons 
and depressions in the desert for many miles. It was 
one of these great risings of the river that caused the 
sudden appearance of the mysterious ‘‘ New River” 
of the desert, which remained two years, and then 
dried up. By similar inundations the great basin at 
Alamo Mucho has doubtless been, and may again be, 
filled. I was told by persons in California who had 
crossed this desert, that they had found pools of 
brackish water several miles from the road. These I 
presume to be deeper basins, where the water stands 
longer than in the ‘“‘New River” or the dry basins 
passed by us. 
