318 
TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
The Cajon; a peculiar break in those mountains through 
which there is a safe and easy passage. This is a very sin¬ 
gular stream. It may be said to run southeastwardly about 
two hundred miles, and empty into the Colorado. But on 
all its length it does not run two miles without entirely dis¬ 
appearing in the sand. So that it presents to the traveller a 
long line of little rippling lakes, from two to two and a half 
feet deep, at one time sunken among hard flinty hills or piles 
of drifting sands, and at others gurgling through narrow vales 
covered with grass, and fields and forests in which live the 
deer, the black bear, the elk, the hare, and many a singing 
bird. 
The Cajon, also, in which it rises, is a great curiosity. The 
mountains seem to have been cleft asunder perpendicularly, 
and the upright walls moved a short distance apart, opening 
a dark winding way to their very heart, where a wider space 
is found—so regularly square, with sides and angles so box¬ 
like, that it has been aptly called cajon —a box. From this 
spot the passage winds again between the sides of the cleft 
mountain, accompanied by another murmuring stream tending 
westward, till it leads the wayfarer into the sweet plains of 
the Californian sea-board ; that most delightful of all lands— 
that paradise of the continent, if not of the world. But 
before describing this I must complete my account of the 
desolate interior. Of this there remains to be described the 
rivers Severe, San Juan, and Jila, and their valleys, the Great 
Salt Lake, called by the Indians, Timpanigos, and the desert 
lying between it and the Californian Mountains. 
About four hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the 
Colorado, and a short distance north of that stream, a river 
arises, which, on account of its rough character, the Mexican 
Spaniards have named Rio Severe—Severe River. Its 
source is among a small cluster of mountains, where it pre¬ 
sents the usual beautiful phenomena of rivulets gathering 
from different quarters—uniting—increasing—tumbling and 
roaring, till it reaches the plain, when it sinks into chasms or 
