128 
SOURCES OF THE WATER ON THE DESERT. 
animals passing over these trails exhibited both by the State of California and the federal 
government. Where United States troops are constantly moving to and fro, and where mail 
deliveries occur fortnightly, it would appear as if something more might he done to obtain a 
larger supply of water. If two parties he approaching the same well, one strives to anticipate 
the other, knowing or fearing the supply is not sufficient for both, and the carcases on the 
trail show how the animals suffer by the deficiency. It would require but a small sum at the 
outset, and a small annual grant, to form efficient wells, and to keep them so ; to widen and 
deepen those already in use; to sink additional ones at Cook’s well, Alamos, and Sackett’s 
well; to raise an adobe structure round them ; the travel over the desert would then be safe 
and comparatively pleasant even in mid-year. Where the sinking does not require to be made 
of great depth, as at Cook’s and Sackett’s wells, the well might be made of large diameter, so 
that the delay from the slow infiltration might be lessened ; and in such case, as in western 
Asia, the approach to the well might be by stairs in the inside. 
The statement has already been made that many of these wells, as in the central and lower 
parts of the route, are fed by the Colorado infiltrating its waters through the loose sands and 
clays. On which account it appears desirable that the number of wells be increased at Alamo 
and Cook’s well, and that new ones be made at Big and Little Lagoons, as there is a 
large supply to draw from, though obtained slowly. Sackett’s wells, on a higher elevation, 
does not owe its water to this source, deriving it from a small under current between clay strata, 
which may be the remains of small streams rolling from the sierra, and losing themselves in 
the porous sands. This supply is, however, so sparing, the original stream so trifling and so 
uncertain in its flow, and the annual fall of rain almost nothing, that, to make deep sinkings, 
or artesian borings , on the desert, along the line of trail, would be likely to be a complete 
failure. It is true that the conglomerate and sandstone of the sierra foot dip east under the 
sands and clays, and form a trough or bottom ; but that bottom itself is porous and little re¬ 
tentive, and so long as the fall of rain is small, the geological conformation is a secondary 
matter in the forming artesian springs. The following abstract, taken from the meteorological, 
register kept at Fort Yuma, (for which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Abbott, U. S. A.,) 
embracing seventeen months of the years 1854 and 1855, show the temperature and fall of rain 
during that period at the fort. 
Fort Yuma.—L ong. 114° 37' 
29" W.; Lat. 32° 42' 27" N. 
Months. 
Tempera¬ 
Rain fall. 
Direction of wind. 
Months. 
Tempera¬ 
•Rain fall. 
Direction of wind. 
ture. 
ture. 
1854. 
1854. 
January. 
55.5 
N.W. 
October. 
77.74 
N. 
Fcbrnfl ry- 
59.11 
.28 
W. and N. 
TVov^rnher. , t , * t 
66.50 
N.N.E. and N.W. 
March. 
61.72 
.80 
W., variable. 
December. 
60.62 
.51 
N.W. and N. 
April. 
73.55 
N. 
1855. 
May. 
73.85 
S. 
January . 
59.25 
.12 
N.W. 
June 
84.90 
W. 
February.. • • • • • 
62.7 
.63 
N. and N.W. 
July. 
94.54 
.01 
E., variable. 
March.. 
69.90 
N.W. 
August. 
91.32 
2.37 
Easterly. 
April... 
73.33 
: . 
W. 
September. 
85.66 
.17 
E., N.E., and S.E. 
May. 
78.22 
N.E. 
4.89 
