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Show DRIFTING SOUTH. The Desert Sandstorms Life on Desert H-rat Yuma. Peculiarities Colorado River Etc., EU Editors Herald: As nu eviJtuceol tbe gocd ruan-jiEi-n'.rnt i f I he great trans umt:-ueLitril umt:-ueLitril ra:!roud and branchop, one gc-ueraliy traveU over ihe uniatt reet-fttiQii reet-fttiQii places duriug the nint. There is uo pUce more worthy of beiug traversed lter inoset than the great Colorado desert o( Lower California. Leaving Cultoti about 7 p. m. our drift is through the San Gorgonia paai, and once out of sight of the SaD Bernardino basin the previous Hi tractive trac-tive oesa of the country begins to wans. ' We have left behind the beautiful orchards, the cultivated fields, and plunged into the desert. From our comfortable cara we look out upon the dreary waste of sand. Hero and there a tuft of Borne kind of : undergrowth is eeen, while in some localities even that is wanting. Dux-I Dux-I ing high winds the parched sands are blown into drifts like the snows on the Union Pacinn, In many places the sand drifts across the track e that instead of a snow.. plow, we have a sand plow to clear the way. The winds blow with great violence in this arid regioa and at times the fine palpable pal-pable dust filled the car. But it is night time, and the dreariness of the sand waste is not so apparent. One I cannot help thinking of the lonely j pilgrim trying to cross this arid region j on foot. There ib a clear stretch in a direot line without a drop of good I water lor 100 miles. In eurnmor time j the thermometer marks from 110 to 120 in the shade at the stations on the road. Thee are about ten miles 'apart and iire constructed with a I double root for greater cooinesn. At Lached to each station is a capacious brick tank holding a car of water. In addition are the Chinese section bouses. To my mind this is the very best place for Chinamen. Isolated from everything thateensible people enjoy theae moon-eyed Mongolians leel perfectly at home. I determined to epend ope day on the desert to real ize tbe loneliness and awful Btilloem of this sea oi eanii. The eflort gave me a high admiration for tbe genius and energy of the projectors of auch un enterprise. A railroad destroys de-stroys all the worst featureaol a desert and renders life possible within its influence. AILer tbe traok-watkers, who, bye tbe way, have to walk twenty miles per day, had started out, and the gangs of section men had left, I wag alone to take in the situation. All around me were the mesquite bush, and the eword cactus. The sharp edges of the distant mountains near tbe Colorado river leoked like a suw set on edge no trees, no shrubs, no water, the rocke barren and smooth as polished pebbles; as for ahade there is none. I thought of the "Bbade of a great roclc in a weary land," hut there was no rock to make shade on the plain; nothing but Band aod gravel on every hand. How the shrubs before mentioned live is one of the raarvelu. Soon alter eunrise what should I -e but a poor, loue donkey and her haby coming towards the Btalion. I watched their proceedings and Baw the roolimr gu tu the pump lor water. Then the poor beast took a circuit of toe station and picked up every acrap ol food thrown out. I learned that they belonged to a mining camp on a mouutain near the Colorado river. A dug belonging to the station began to play wiib tne little burro, as tney iare called here. Three orowB pay a j visit daily to the station to pick up ormnhs. Tbe aLove live objects con : allium the visitors to Oilby Btation ! where 1 stopped. j Some of tu atatious are 200 or 300 feet below the Itvel of the sea, and a movement is now on foot to turn the waters of the Colorado river into this desert basin, thinking thereby to : change the climate and produce more rama in this inhospitable region. Aa it teldom or never rains here, it is one blaze of sunshine from morning till night. A old Horace Greeley said of some paiU of the country on the overland over-land route, that the only uae for it :ts to b.Ud the good parts together, the aame may be said ol the Colorado desert. i Yuma, tbe present termiuus of the 'Southern Pacific railroad, is on tbe I Arizona side ot tbe Colorado river at the junction of the Gila and Colorado i i vent. It baa long bad the reputa'.ion ol being the honest place in North America. Toe story that a eoldier who died there and went to HadeB srut back for his blauketa, has made the place famous for bent. At the time ot my visit, March J5'.b, tbe it. ermometer marked in the shade dt mion, In summer time there is very little d:hVrence between night j hdU day, so lliat the heat ia almost unbearable. Of course the winter u o ulia are dclighllul. Fjri Vuma is on the Caiifernia Mae. it is located on a knull overlooking over-looking the river. The houses have wide pnrehef), under which nre bus-peniiwl bus-peniiwl the large earthen jatB covered with (1 mnel for cooliDg water. Around mc parade grouud eie castor oil bean 1 1 pi1-, that seem indigenous to this country. from Fort Yuma tbe distant hills of old Mexico may he aeeo, and the distance is not far to the Gull of California. Steamers ply up ihe river from here as far as tbo iJiacit caiYjn. The navigation is tedious and Uifhcult. The mining towns on tne river aim uiuoc 1 1 mo -i rpaebtd from the dillerent points of lamin g- Mof-t of the steamers are heavily ladi-n aud hitul large barges With jOC-d carpntfl. Tin; tovu ol Yum is (lit roofed aud aa much like a Mexican town a it carl t'fl ru'dtj in fact, more people -(je,K SaoisU man Kuiish. Ine iicui are painted in Spanish and Euglih'n. Ihe streets are very sandy and dry. About two inches ol rain u the average rainfall, aiinuugb some nroea aB much as live incuts, will fjll in an hour. Tt e climate is, therefore, there-fore, very dry and hot. .No gardens greet tbe -ye. T,.e pa l of Hie rei Ot-nta i about two nii!es per h.ur. I ir.iiik it is a g'jod pice to drtmy a., mutiHiou lor ftdlKing Nsi. 'I tin omy tvijtuce of energy near lh rftilroad Jt pot. Tne luiiwiisc supplies f t tb2 in'.enor have to be umonded at:d re Bitippt" in WJg.'na and boa''; a lure uunii.tr ct bauds era f..r,ftai:;.y triii P cvfJ and a mere whr'-ii.ccl ! t' i.t-io'ia lut nt men u h hard t' tiiid. j K.irt and ernl:-puX ab-jund. On tin. j Uil ere I a.epi, they were renting across and around a:i night. As n small pt x, tu oue Cnrca a! out it. M.-st of the liidtand have id it, oi pot it, but a is eeiduru fatal. Tot Indiaus do not follow the 1-tsuions iu Yuma. M.ol of the Equawe art-naked art-naked above the hips, iue buefce are almoat ac had. Y uaiB pubsbea a live paper calico the Arizona 6enlinel. Tue editor uiJil be a man of great iuvrnlivt-skiM, iuvrnlivt-skiM, as the cn:uaiu& are lull ol local i iltiUK, aed tor buch a quiet town, it fihows eitrao'diuary energy. liir arrivals by every trin," either wagon or railroad, are t-illtfully recordt-O, and paaseugerd interviewtd, 1 observed li:nt an item was mAdsofthtr mcreaEe of wayej of a raiiroad em ploy. How's that for enterprise? borne of the bottom land on the Gila ia cultivated. Otherwise, little eflort ia made to make the soil prx. ductive. The Soathern Pacific railroad company ofier to build across Arizona without subsidy, but Tom Scott ie trying to head oti tbe building ol Buen a road by bis Texas Pacific whose terminus is San Diego. Which will come out ahead is bard to tell, but give the txmlberu Pacific people hall a chance, and they wdl show the United Slates how to do it in double quick time. A line railroad bridge ib built across the Colorado at Yuma, and the half mile of road running through the town of Yuma ib all the railroad Arizona pofaeasee. The Colorado river at this point ia no larger than it ia at the mouth ol the liio Virgin, a thousand miles away. Below that point it receives but few Btreams. The mind ia lost in contemplating the course of this mighty river, receiving, as it does, the waters of the western slope of tbe Wind river mountains at South Pais and those of tbe Uinta range forming Green river, then on down through the mighty chaamB nearly a mile deep, explored by tbe brave Major Powell, finally the drainage of South Eastern Utah and Northern Arjzjna, a length of neurly 3,(J00 miles betore it runs into the Gulf of California. t Hut J must leave Yuma with its greaBere, fl.U rojfa, barren soil and red hot climate, and the kind and generous eQiplojfa of tbe Southern Pacific railroad, to whom your cor respondent iB indebted for many favujB, Vale, Yuma and the southern drift. C. K. Savage. |