14 
REMAINS OF INDIAN WORKS.—HIEROGLYPHICS.—GAME. 
black basalt, interspersed witb agate, chalcedony, vitrified quartz, and carbonate of lime. 
About the summit was a mound of granite boulders, blackened by augite, and covered witb 
unknown characters, the work of human hands. These have been copied. On the ground near 
by were also traces of some of the figures, showing some of the hieroglyphics, at least, to have 
been the work of modern Indians. Others were of undoubted antiquity, and the signs and 
symbols intended, doubtless, to commemorate some great event. One stone bore on it what 
might be taken, with a little stretch of the imagination, to be a mastodon, a horse, a dog, and a 
man. Their heads are turned to the east, and this may commemorate the passage of the 
Aborigines of the Gila on their way south. 
Many of the modern symbols are in imitation of the antique, and doubtless the medicine 
men of the present day resort to this mound to invoke their unseen spirits, and work the mira¬ 
cles which enable them to hold their sway amongst their credulous race. There are many more 
weird and mysterious-looking places than this to be found along the banks of the Gila, and the 
first attraction to the modern Indian was, without doubt, the strange characters he saw in¬ 
scribed. 
Some of the boulders appear to have been written and re-written upon so often, it was impos¬ 
sible to get a distinct outline of any of the characters. 
We descended into the broad valley of the Gila, skirted on the south side by the table-land, 
black with basalt pebbles, resting on a stratum of the carbonate of lime, upon which the river 
impinged at every flood and widened its valley. 
The hills on the north side were of red and gray rocks, probably granite, irregular in form, 
varying from five hundred to one thousand feet. Finding no grass, we loosened our mules 
among the willows and cane. 
November 17.—The route to-day was over a country much the same as that described yesterday. 
Wherever we mounted to the table-lands to cut off a bend in the river, we found them dreary 
beyond description, covered with blocks of basalt, with a few intervals of dwarf growth of larrea. 
Now and then a single acacia raised its solitary form and displayed its verdure in the black 
expanse. We crossed the dry beds of two creeks-with sandy bottoms. Under the crust of basalt 
are usually sandstone and a conglomerate of pebbles, sandstone, and lime. This last is easily 
undermined by the river, and the basalt or lava then caves in. 
The bottoms of the river are wide, rich, and thickly overgrown with willow and a tall aromatic 
weed, and alive with flights of white brant, (wing tipped with black,) geese, and ducks, with 
many signs of deer and beaver. 
At night I heard the song of the sailors calling the depth of the water, and presently Wil¬ 
liams, Lieutenant Warner’s servant, who had been missing all day, came out of the river with 
the hind quarters of a large buck, perfectly intoxicated with his unexpected success. Twelve 
miles back he let his mule loose, went in pursuit of deer, and killed a buck. After lugging the 
whole of it for two miles, he lightened his load by leaving one-half. 
We encamped down in one of the deserted beds of the Gila, where the ground was cracked 
and drawn into blisters. The night was cold, the thermometer at 6 a. m. 20°. Latitude of 
the camp 32° 55' 52". 
November 18.—High wind from the northwest all day, showing that there was still a barrier 
of snow-clad mountains between ourselves and Monterey, which we must turn or scale. 
Carson pointed to a flat rock covered with fir, and told that he had slaughtered a fat mule 
there. The names of several Americans were inscribed on the same rock. 
After travelling some ten or twelve miles through the valley, we mounted to the table-land, 
and at 12| o’clock stopped to graze our horses at a little patch of dried spear-grass. Leaving 
this, the ground, as far as the eye could reach, was strewn with the black, shining, well-rounded 
pebbles. The larrea even was scarcely seen, and dreariness seemed to mantle the earth. The 
arroyo by which we descended to the river was cut from a bed of reddish pebbles twenty or 
