SAN FRANCISQUITO PASS. 
water at short intervals. • I made a survey of the San Francisquito Pass with odometer and 
barometer, and found it very difficult for railroad purposes, there being a grade of 457 feet for 
a mile, and over 330 for two miles. The wagon-road passes along and in the bed of a mountain 
28 
tion for about ten miles, skirting the base of a chain of lost hills, which were about 600 feet 
high, we came to another spring, and a few miles beyond we found a third. We ascended 
several of the hills to get views of the surrounding country; and finally, after having gone about 
thirty miles east of the base of the Sierra Nevada, we turned back and rejoined Lieutenant 
Stoneman in camp. 
Subsequently, I came westward from the Mohave river to near the place where we turned 
hack, and found the country presented the same characters, except that no more water was dis¬ 
covered. Independent of the lost hills, the country is a system of inclined plains or slopes ; and 
although there is no serious topographical impediment to the construction of a railroad through 
it, the grades would often approach 100 feet to the mile. There is no timber, the surface being 
generally bare, or covered with sage bushes, grease-wood, yucca trees, &c. Mr. Blake con¬ 
fidently expresses the opinion that water can be obtained by boring. 
SAN FRANCISQUITO PASS. 
Lieutenant Stoneman’s camp was near the entrance to the San Francisquito Pass, a pass 
through which the wagon-road from the Tejon descends from the summit of the Coast range to 
the Santa Clara valley. He had found no difficulty in conducting the wagon-train through the 
Canada de las Uvas, and along the base of the mountains to camp, finding plenty of grass and 
LAKE ELIZABETH, SAN FRANCISQUITO PASS. 
