deserts of sand, but plains covered at certain seasons of the year with luxuriant grass, exhibiting green spots and springs not very remote from each other at all times. There is sufficient water in the Gila and its branches for all the purposes of irrigation when it is wanted, the streams being high during the season most needed. The Rio Salado, a tributary of the Gila, is a bold and far more beautiful river than the Gila itself, and, from the old ruins now seen there, must have had formerly a large settlement upon its banks. "To many persons merely travelling or emigrating across the country, with but one object in view, and that the reaching their destination on the Pacific, the country would generally present a barren aspect. But it will be recollected that the most productive fields in California, before American enterprise introduced the plough, and a different mode of cultivation from that of the natives of the country, presented somewhat similar appearance. Many believed, at first, from the cold and sterile look of the hills, and the parched appearance of the fields and valleys, over which the starving coyote is often seen prowling in search of something to subsist on, that California could never become an agricultural district, but must depend upon her other resources for greatness, and trust to distant regions for the necessaries of life required for her increased population. It was natural enough, too, that this impression should be created in those accustomed to a different State of things, and particularly when it is considered that the very season of blossom and bloom of our Atlantic States was the winter of California; but these same fields and hills have a very different appearance in January, February, and March, clothed as they are in the brightest verdure and no one now will pretend to say that California does not possess within herself great agricultural as well as mineral wealth. This, I believe, will some day be the case with the country from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, adjacent to the Gila. Senate Ex. Doc. No. 55, 33rd Congress, 2nd Session." * * * * * * * * In speaking of the resources of this region for a railroad, in the same report, Gray says: