240 AT THE COCO-MARICOPA AND 
refused to accede to it, and told them that Francisco 
and one other would answer my purpose, as first pro- 
posed. 
At six o'clock this morning we set off, the party 
consisting of Dr. Webb, Messrs. Thurber, Pratt, Seaton, 
Force, Leroux, and myself, with attendants. Lieute- 
nant Paige, with six soldiers, also accompanied us, that 
officer wishing to examine the opposite bank of the 
Gila, as well as the lands contiguous to the Salinas, 
with a view of establishing a military post in the v1- 
cinity of the Pimo villages. After crossing the bed 
of the Gila we pursued a westerly course about eight 
miles to the point of a range of mountains, near which 
we struck the bottom-lands. We now inclined more 
to the north, and in about eight miles struck the Sali- 
nas, about twelve miles from its mouth, where we 
stopped to let the animals rest and feed. The bottom, 
which we crossed diagonally, is from three to four 
miles wide. ‘The river we found to be from eighty to 
one hundred and twenty feet wide, from two to three 
feet deep, and both rapid and clear. In these respects 
it is totally different from the Gila, which, for the two 
hundred miles we had traversed its banks, was slug- 
gish and muddy, a character which I think it assumes 
after passing the mountainous region and entering one 
with alluvial banks. The water is perfectly sweet, 
and neither brackish nor salt, as would be inferred 
from the name. We saw from the banks many fish in 
its clear waters, and caught several of the same species 
as those taken in the Gila. The margin of the river 
on both sides, for a width of three hundred feet, consists 
of sand and gravel, brought down by freshets when 
