Gulf of California, the country presents more the
appearance of a barren waste or desert than any district I have seen.
It nevertheless has occasional oases, with fine grazing lands about
them, and the mountains, which are more broken and detached, have
distinct marks of volcanic origin. The ranges though short, have
generally the same parallel direction as those further east. It is the
country of the Papago Indians, a peaceful and friendly tribe, extending
down to the Gulf coast, where they are mixed up somewhat with the
Cocopas of the Colorado. From Sonoita I explored to the Gulf shore,
near the mouth of Adair Bay. It was 62 miles, following a dry arroya
most of the way, and the point at which I struck the Gulf was in
latitude 31 degrees 36 minutes 34 minutes. The "Bay" is about 15 miles
across, and from all I could learn, 15 miles long, and represented as
having four fathoms of water. It is completely encircled by a range of
sand hills, reaching north-west to the Colorado river and south-east as
far as the eye could discover. These "sables" are probably eighty or
ninety miles in extent, by five to ten broad.

"Notwithstanding it appears to be the most desolate and forlorn-looking
spot for eighty miles around the head of the Gulf, the sand hills
looking like a terrible desert, nature seems even here, where no rain
had fallen for eight months, to have provided for the sustenance of
man, one of the most nutritious and palatable vegetables.

"East of the Tinaja Alta or high tank range, lie the famous Sierras del
Ajo, now United States territory. These mountains derive their name
from the vast deposits of red oxide and green carbonate of copper found
about them, and which the Indians have made use of to paint (ajo)
themselves with. The mines are unquestionably of great value, and must
become important, more particularly from their being situated in the
neighborhood of the contemplated railway. The tall Cereus Giganteus and
Agave Americana are found in abundance. From the latter plant the
natives make the pulque, mezcal and agua-diente; and the petahaya or
cereus, produces a fruit from which is made a very pleasant preserve.
At the Pimo and Maricopa villages are found wheat, corn, tobaco, and
cotton, besides melons, pumpkins, beans, etc. The nature of the soil
for great distances in the Gila valley is of a reddish loam; some parts
coated with a beautiful crystallization of salt, a quarter to half an
inch thick. This seems