FROM SAN FELIPE C4N0N TO HEAD OF CARRIZO CREEK. 
39 
But if the canon be rejected, and the route at present pursued by the wagon-road he preferred, 
we must ascend from the valley of San Felipe, and cross the collateral divide between that 
valley and the headwaters of Oarrizo creek. To do this we have a gentle ascent till near the 
divide, when a tunnel of 300 yaids would he required to pass the steep pitch, where the ascent 
is at the rate of 940 feet and the descent 740 feet per mile. Having passed the divide, the 
wagon-road lies in the bed of the stream, dry during the greater part of the year. The descent 
6 C 
led over a collateral divide, 400 feet above San Felipe, and is brought upon the headwaters of 
another creek; it then follows this creek to the desert, continually descending, with the excep¬ 
tion of half a mile, where it crosses a hill to avoid a canon of the creek. 
From Warner’s to within 2|- miles of the summit the grades are easy; but from here we 
have 1^- mile at 215 feet per mile, and 1 mile at 280 feet per mile. Descending from the divide 
we have a grade of 333 feet for 1§- mile, and of 140 feet for 4 miles more. Suppose we connect 
the point where the ascending grade of 280 feet commences, with that where the descending 
grade of 333 feet ends ; we should have a tunnel 2 \ miles long, with a grade, descending to¬ 
wards San Felipe, of 100 feet to the mile ; and to reach such a tunnel we have to overcome a 
grade of 215 feet per mile. 
Having arrived at San Felipe, a road might be made through the canon above mentioned, 
with immense labor and expense. It would have to be built on the side-hill, and there would 
probably be required from 10 to 15 miles of road of the most expensive character to reach the 
valley at the lower end of the canon ; for although this canon is but little more than four miles 
long, the fall averages at least 400 feet to the mile. 
