PLAYA DE LOS PIMAS. 
9 
crisp. The stream is about eighteen inches deep and twelve feet wide, and flows with a rapid cur¬ 
rent, at about twelve feet below the surface of its hanks, which are nearly vertical, and of a 
treacherous miry soil, rendering-it extremely difficult to approach the water, now muddy and 
forbidding. The banks are devoid of timber, or any sign indicating the course or even the 
existence of a stream, to an observer but a short distance removed. Made eleven miles. 
February 26.—Started down the stream about two miles to the ford, Lieutenant Stoneman 
having despatched a fatigue party to improve it ■ but in spite of this and the great exertion of 
Lieutenant S., we had no little trouble in effecting a crossing. There being no trail leading 
eastward from the river, the party again encamped, while I started to examine the several gaps 
in the ridge on our front. Leaving the river-bottom, we followed up a lateral valley; but find¬ 
ing it narrowing as we advanced, becoming a tortuous dry sand-bed or arroyo, bounded by steep 
slopes, we took to the table-land; and after a few miles of rough riding reached the gap im¬ 
mediately to the east of our camp, and found it not only impracticable for our wagons, but pre¬ 
senting no advantages for our profile beyond the mere direction. We then skirted the western 
base of this ridge southerly, and found a canon leading directly through it, with walls of 
rounded masses of granite, which formed in many places, also, quite a step-like bottom. Pass¬ 
ing through this canon, we continued on the east slope, southward, and found that the ridge 
terminated, leaving a very inviting and apparently feasible pass between it and the terminus 
of an overlapping ridge from the south. In this pass we found comparatively fresh wagon- 
trails. Returned by following these trails to the river, and thence down to camp, arriving 
at midnight with our mules broken down. 
February 27.—Lieutenant Stoneman and myself examined the fourth gap on the north of 
those examined yesterday, through which I am now satisfied that Mr. Nugent must have passed. 
We found the approaches difficult and hazardous to attempt with loaded wagons, according 
well with Mr. Nugent’s notes : “a succession of steep hills and rocky ravines.” 
From the river bottom to the base of this ridge extends a foot-slope, appearing as if once 
smooth and of uniform ascent, but now cut up into a perfect labyrinth of washes and gullies, 
ramifying and branching into a multitude of arms as we ascend. Returning to camp, I deter¬ 
mined to take the gap through which we passed last night. Packing up, we followed the river 
until striking the wagon trails, then turned eastward up a large sandy ravine, and camped at 
sundown without water, but a sufficiency of grass. Made fourteen miles. 
February 28.—Left the ravine near the mountains, the road leading over a smooth, rolling, 
prairie-like surface through the pass, the summit of which we reached at 11 o’clock. Before 
us lay an extended plain, in the middle of which is the Salt lake, Playa de los Pimas, and 
beyond this the Chiricahui ridge, with its lofty Dos Cabezas; to the north the massive Mount 
Graham, with an apparently continuous ridge extending northwestward till lost below the 
horizon. Between this ridge and that over which we have just passed there is a wide 
opening towards the mouth of the San Pedro, apparently a continuation of the plain Playa de 
los Pimas. To the north of the Chiricahui ridge is a wide gap between it and Mount Graham ; 
and immediately to the south of the Dos Cabezas is a third gap, Puerto del Dado, which is very 
inviting, and, lying directly on our course, I determined to travel through it. 
From the summit we had a perfectly smooth road over a reddish soil, covered with grass, 
and devoid of trees with the exception of a few scattering palmettos down to the Playa, which, 
at present, is a hard, smooth, and apparently level area of about fifteen miles in length by 
nearly ten in width, without a particle of vegetation, it being the perfection of sterility. These 
playas, in my opinion, have no outlet, and are so nearly level that the rain and drain waters 
are spread over a large surface; and there being but little absorption and very rapid evapori- 
zation, it is left smooth and baked. In some places it is much cracked, and covered by a 
nitrous efflorescence, which gives rise to the ordinary name for all like places—“Salt lake.” On 
the Playa we crossed two very large trails leading from south to north, doubtless those of 
