20 EXTRACTS FROM [PRELIMINARY] REPORT. 
Passing on, we soon came to a ridge and commenced our descent; at first steep, then more 
gentle, along an arroyo, to a puerto at the foot of a large metamorphic mountain, where we had 
a view westward to the great valley before seen. In the midst seemed a lake, supposed to he 
mirage; to the left, however, curled a tall column of smoke, where, undoubtedly, were the 
camp-fires of the advance party, and water. 
Having travelled about fourteen miles, we made a noon halt. The country traversed looked 
dreary—a mass of rock and gravel without useful vegetation. 
At 5 p. m. we proceeded two miles down the arroyo and entered a field of drifted sand. By 
moonlight the effect was beautiful; it seemed a fairy scene, with the bright and placid firma¬ 
ment above, and the earth beneath covered with snow-white sand. The air was fresh, not cold, 
and all seemed to enjoy the march. Mexicans and Americans were singing, each his favorite 
song, as easily we trod the hard surface of drift. Even mules and the carretela had made but 
light impressions upon the compact surface. Two or three miles of this interesting hut dreary 
prospect, which, sweeping from the southwest, seemed to extend indefinitely towards the north, 
brought us to a puerto in a low rocky ridge of hills, upon the northwest side of which, sand, 
piled nearly to the top, left hare the summits only. 
Soon we struck the smooth bottom of a lake of efflorescent salts, probably sulphate of soda. 
Traversing this with a good road for about six miles, at 10 o’clock in the night we reached th e 
camp of Lieutenant Ives, where water and grass were abundant; the latter was salt and the former 
brackish. Mules drank freely, but the water was unpalatable to men. By viameter, our distance 
from Marl springs is thirty-one miles, the greatest jornada upon our route. For nearly half the 
distance the soil is hard gravel; ten miles are sandy, the remainder being upon the hard clay 
forming the bed of the lake. 
By results of the survey, Soda lake is found to be seven hundred and sixty-six feet above our 
crossing of the Colorado, the distance by trail being ninety-seven miles, and the average descent 
eight feet per mile. 
Whether a channel exists by which the Mojave river finds its way to the Colorado is a problem 
not yet solved. We regretted exceedingly that time for a closer examination was not at our 
disposal. Our trusty Indian guide, however, assured us that the dry channel of that stream 
passed uninterruptedly north of our route to the Colorado, and that wagons could pass through 
it without encountering a hill 
Such a route as he describes, with water found by digging, is undoubtedly the most favorable 
for a railway that exists across the desert west from the Colorado river. 
The true channel of the Mojave river, where it enters Soda lake, is but a bed of sand, which 
we ascend thirteen miles before finding running water. There it is a rapid rivulet, its clear 
waters making melody with the pebbly shore. A few miles higher up on the stream barrenness 
gave place to fertility ; tulares, grass, alamos, and willows, covered rich meadows. 
The river here is fifty yards in width and knee-deep. Mezquite trees, tornillas loaded with 
fruit, form occasional thickets. 
For seventy-five or eighty miles above our course followed the gentle meanderings of Rio 
Mojave. The soil of the valley is rich, and there is plenty of water for irrigation, although 
occasionally it disappears for a short distance beneath the surface. There are cotton wood and 
mezquite for fuel. Timber is scarce and small, except near the sources of the stream in the San 
Bernardino mountains, where magnificent oaks, pines and spruce occur. 
At the point of leaving the river we found it one hundred and fifty yards wide, and two and 
a half feet deep ; its alluvial bottoms still fertile and densely covered with alamos and willows. 
Mounting the left bank, we found large springs gushing from the verdant slope. The air 
thermometer reading 15°.9 Cent., the temperature of the spring water was 19°. 1 Cent. 
66°.4 Fahrenheit; which, probably, is the mean temperature of the climate in this region. 
Ascending the wide-swelling prairie which leads to all the passes near the junction of the 
