196 - FORT YUMA 
prominent place which his people make it a practice 
to resort to, others, with the example before them, 
endeavor to compete with their brother artist, and 
show their skill by similar peckings. One draws an 
animal such as he sees; another makes one according 
to his own fancy; and a third amuses himself with 
devising grotesque or unmeaning figures of other sorts. 
Hence we find these sculptured rocks in large num- 
bers in prominent places. We all had the luxury of a 
bath here; and though the water was quite warm, we 
found it very refreshing. We made a practice of 
bathing wherever we could find water, believing it a 
better preservative of health than any thing else. 
June 22d. The heat had. been so oppressive both 
to the men and animals since leaving Fort Yuma, that 
I determined to make our marches very early in the, 
morning, or at night. The cooks were accordingly 
roused this morning at three o'clock, which enabled 
us to get our breakfast and move off by half-past four. 
The thermometer at sunrise stood at 69°, the lowest. 
we had seen it since leaving the coast; and after the 
constant heats we had had, this temperature was un- 
comfortably cool. 
We ascended the plateau to cut off a bend of the 
river; and after keeping on it for four or five miles, we 
again desended into the bottom, cutting away a bank 
in order to reach it. The plateau was as dreary and 
desolate as before, stretching away as far as the eye 
could reach to the south in one vast plain, interrupted 
at intervals of ten or twenty miles with isolated moun- 
tains rising abruptly from it. The road now became 
better, as 1t wound through a dense thicket of willows 
