ks of the Colorado River, in the hot
month of July, 1854, we concluded to locate a town-site on the slip of
land opposite Fort Yuma, and as we were well provided with treaties,
maps, surveying instruments, and stationery, there was not much
difficulty in making the location. The actual survey showed 936 acres
within the slip, and this was quite large enough for a "town-site." A
town-site is generally the first evidence of American civilization.

After locating the town-site at Yuma there was nothing to do but to
cross the desert from the Colorado River to San Diego. We made the
journey on mules, with extraordinary discomfort. At San Diego we were as
much rejoiced as the followers of Xenophon to see the sea.

The town-site was duly registered in San Diego, which could not have
been done if both banks of the Colorado just below its junction with the
Gila had not been recognized as being within the jurisdiction of the
State of California. The county of San Diego collected taxes there for
many years. After the organization of the Territory of Arizona in 1863,
Arizona assumed jurisdiction over the slip, and built a prison there.
Congress subsequently made a grant of land included in the slip to the
"Village of Yuma," so that it is a mere question of jurisdiction, not
involving the validity of any titles. The question of jurisdiction still
remains unsettled, as it requires both an Act of Congress and Act of the
State Legislature to change the boundaries of a sovereign State.

The town-site of Yuma has grown slowly, but there will be a town there
as long as the two rivers flow. The Southern Pacific Railroad was
completed years ago, and forms the great artery of commerce. Immigration
enterprises of great magnitude have been undertaken with the waters of
the Colorado River. The river washes fully three hundred thousand square
miles, and furnishes a water power in the cataracts of the Grand Canon
only second to Niagara.

"At Yuma, on the Colorado River, the only attempt at irrigation so far
made is by pumping works, which raise the water from the river and
convey it in pipes to the lands to be watered. While thus far only a
limited area is watered by this method, the results are satisfactory,
and the expense no greater than in many of the pipe systems of
California.

"But for the magnitude, scope, and the boldness of its purpose, the
project to irrigate the great Colorado Desert is without a parallel in
the arid West, if in