OCR Text |
Show -19- Appendix D. San Bernardino, November 1, 1860. Sir: In compliance with your instructions, I have made a reconnaissance and survey of the Colorado desert, with a view of determining the "practicability and probable expense of introducing water on the said desert from the Colorado River, and the area of land which may be thus irrigated." The reconnaissance and survey embraced that portion of the desert lying south of the range of mountains extending from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Colorado River. I deemed it unnecessary to go north of that range of mountains, having spent some time in surveying that region of country, and thus gained a familiar knowledge of its topography and physical geography, from which I am persuaded that water cannot be taken from the river over any considerable portion of it, or to the basin below that range of mountains; and, moreover, having found a point which was so well adapted in fulfillment of the object in view that I deemed it all-sufficient to limit the survey to the above-named region of country. After having made a careful reconnaissance of the country, I was forcibly impressed with the practicability of taking water from the Colorado River over a great portion of it, inasmuch as there is the unmistakable evidence of water having flown from the river through innumerable channels and finally concentrating into one of some magnitude, by which the water is conducted far up into the basin; water having passed through this channel (from the Colorado River) soon after our acquisition of the country, it was called New River and Old River. The practicability being thus settled by the laws of nature, I sought to determine on a suitable point to tap the river, and was fortunate in finding a location which possessed so many advantages that I was at no loss in making the selection. It is that point of rock adjacent to Pilot Knob, and immediately below our boundary-line |