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Show 592 Ex. Doc. No. 41. f 11 ed down the Gila through the caf10n for four miles, crossing o ofver re eatedly; the high water mark was freguently a~ove t~~ ~eads OJ; the rocks. There was very little ~ra s m the canon, o . t1 e The road left the Gila on the left bank, and led up a \lt e c~n . east of south for flve miles further, it then brought us a urby ratlv we . . f h s p d · course Saddle mountain 1n s1ght o t e an e ro, us t? 1~ We then march~d on and encamped on the left b~nk, ~~~u~w;~e· mile above its mouth, on the .border of the low hills, where we found plenty of grass; four mdcs further, the rock~ on the Gila were diluvial as we started, thence _blue, gr~y, and vanous colored basalt; in one place coarse amygdaloid, all ~tth an apparent vertical seam; the rocks generally very compact, wtt~ m~ny Jrac~s and ru ge<.l surface; a few of them soft and pulve~1zec. . n. t e bill fo;r miles from the San Pedro :vas a b~d of greyish w htte ju~~etone then commenced the diluv10n aga1.n. On the top o t 1s ridge' stood the S.adule mountain, capped with some rock-probably the limestone-but it may be the basalt. The bottom of the s.an Pedro is one mile broad, and of the cht1r~cter of those on the ,Gt.la b lusty dry soil grown in places w1th cotton-woods and.wil-a ove, < ' , · • • h 1 th low, in others with grass, ano agam mesqutt~, c. appara , o er laces bare. It bears the usual signs of hab1tat1ons of former fimes-abundan ce of fragments of pottery; ~ also found the fragment'' of a cerulian sea-shell. The vegetatiOn of to-day was the .a F m IJ ~~------------- _______ .,.,. ------- -- __ ._.. same, much as yesterday; saw some deer, abundance of qua~l, so.me ducks and a pole-cat, and a number of geese and grey rabbtts, like those 'of the Uniteu States, but apparently smalJ, and the large g'rey hare, with black tail and ears. . . . November 6.-Remained in camp,. awa1t1ng ~he arnval of. the howitzers; obtained some seed of the p1tahay~, whtch.wer.e con tamed in a clried fruit pod two inches large; the h1lls of dtluvion are cut into an infinite number of hollows, on them the cact.us and the various kinds of acacia grow in a scattered way, covermg one-tenth, perhaps, of the surface, t~e rest is bare gravel, except one-tent~ more which is taken up wtth the scattered bunches of grama grass, unde; the base of these hills the mesquite grows thick for a hundred yards, some of it being trees of two feet in. diameter, but l?w in altitude. Then comes the bottom of the nver covered wtth coarse grass, which abounds on the b~ttoms of th.e Del Norte; then comes the willows a few yards, wh1ch stand th1ck along the I .Ex. Doc. No. 41. • 593 , water in t~any places, but.not more than_12 ~ePt high; the cottonwoods nrc generally a loot or 1~ore 1n diameter; in irregular g~oves, not 1'?ore than 100 yards w1de along down the river; the h1gher hdls 1n the back groun(l on each side look half green with the bushes of the cr osote pla.n~, an~! the mountains here are apparently almost bare; the peaks vt 1blc from here arr not very high. Our route .for the last fl'w days has b een very crooked, so that had we a stra1ght route, we cot~ld have come through the calion in two days., or one and a half wstead of four. The chain of mountains conttnue along on the right bauk of the Pedro so that there would he rough hills to cross from this point to the gap between the Mount Dallas anrl Mount Dick. Ntvernbe'r 7 .-Marched at 8; kept down the l eft bank of the San Pedro, and crossed the Gila three miles from camp· near the mouth o.f the San Pedro is.a gooc~ p atch of grass. We'kept down the nght ba~k of the Gtla untd we entered the fifth canon, where we crossed 1 t fr(.~q u ~n tl y '· and encamped on its right b-=tnk, with scanty gra, ~. Auout s1x ~rnle.f; bel.o~ the San Pedro w~ passed a good c a m p n n l ,. r r o m c ( 1 ' I u v 1 · d c 11 ff ; here , we are to l (1 , 1 s a b o u t o u r l as t grass fr .'il• t11,· •t, Cil~iforr, i· . The river is slightly larger here than where we fi1&l 3ctW 1t, although we were told otherwise· it has about ~8 inches water on the shoals h ere, and canoes mi~ht pasfJ down 1t very reanily, and good sized boats, if it was not for .the round rocks in its bed. Tht San Pedro, an active man coul(l j11mp across. Our course was a ]it tl e north of wt>st; d istan cc 18 miles. The mountains in pe?.ks, composed mostly of basalt, cam~ near to the river; the di l uvial beds, indurated in to rocks, are torn and bro~ ken in every direction, indicating great violence and irregularity in their displacement. There appears to be a subsequent bed of diluvion along here not yet displaced; the bottoms of the river are composed of the usual clay, in a state of powder or dust, and which i~ ~ndermined in every direction by animals of the rat kind, so that 1 t Is un p 1 easan t to man or mule to ride off the beaten tr;, ck. Along the very edge of the water of the river the grass and other verdure gr~w l uxu.rian ~1 y; on all else the vegetation was as nsua 1, the me~qu1te and. Its londred plants, and the creosote covering the mounhnns to theu tops; no trees visible on the mountains. Signs of the wild hog, and the deer, and the turkey were numerous· the ~8 ' .. |