150 ALAMO MUCHO TO 
ly encroaching upon the bottom. It is about forty feet 
high, and in its progress swallows up the largest trees 
of the valley. It is so loose as to be impassable for 
animals, and very difficult for men.* 
At 6 o'clock, our eyes were greeted with a sight 
of the great Colorado River, twelve miles below its 
junction with the Gila, at a place called ‘‘ The Algo- 
dones,” and soon after, we halted upon its bank It 
was much swollen, and rushed by with great velocity, 
washing away the banks and carrying with it number- 
less snags and trees. The water, though sweet, was 
much charged with mud, giving it a dark reddish 
appearance, whence its name. We had seenno stream 
since leaving the Mississippi (the rivers in Upper Cali- 
fornia excepted) at all comparable, in point of size, 
to the Colorado. 
After watering the animals, I thought it best to 
proceed a few miles further. Lieutenant Whipple, who 
had been here before, and was familiar with the coun- 
try, said we should find a grove of mezquit trees, which 
would furnish food for the animals; for the valley of 
the Colorado affords no grass. Near this spot is a 
rocky spur of the adjacent hills, called ‘‘ Pilot Knob,” 
extending to the river, where we found the remains 
of a stone fort built a few years before, by a party 
of Americans, who established a ferry here. On this 
ridge was one of the iron monuments erected by the 
Boundary Commission the year before, which the | 
* Since my return, I have been informed by Major Andrews, U. S. 
A., who was stationed at Fort Yuma at the time of my visit, that this 
belt, of sand is about four miles in width, and from twelve to fifteen in 
length. 
