Black Cañon and those of its tributaries in the Territories above. Thus the navigable channel is often changed entirely in a single night, and the greatest care is required to run steamboats on it successfully. Broad strips of bottom-land skirt its lower part on both banks, with the exception of a few miles, where mountain ranges, such as the Monument Mountains and the Needles, approach to the water's edge.

The principal tributaries of the Colorado, in Arizona, are the Colorado Chiquito or Flax River, the Diamond River, Bill Williams' Fork, into which the Santa Maria River empties, and the Gila, with its affluents, the Rio Salinas, Rio Verde, the San Carlos, and San Pedro. The Santa Cruz from the south, and the Agua Frio and Hassayampa Rivers from the north, sink in the dry plains before they reach the Gila.

The climate of the Territory is like neither that of the Atlantic States nor that of the Pacific coast, but rather stands between the two, exhibiting peculiarities of both. While in the portion south of the Gila River and along the trough of the Colorado River an excessively hot and dry atmosphere prevails, relieved only by the semi-annual showers of January and July, the middle and northeastern parts of Arizona enjoy a climate very similar to that of the South Atlantic States. As a natural consequence, the vegetation of Southern and Western Arizona is scanty and limited to a few genera, such as cactus, aloe, artemisia, palo verde, iron-wood, and mesquite, which can sustain themselves on a parched soil and under the rays of an almost tropical sun. The bottom-lands of the rivers are, of course, an exception to this, the increased moisture and richer soil supporting here a luxurious growth of cottonwood, willow, mesquite, arrow-weed, and many different kinds of nutritious grasses. The middle and northeastern portions of Arizona are made up of elevated plateaus and an extensive system of mountain ranges, and here a more varied vegetation prevails. The heat is here never oppressive, and even during the hottest summer months the thermometer does not rise any higher than in the Blue Ridge in the Southern States. Greater moisture in the atmosphere stimulates the growth of magnificent pine and cedar forests, and the soil is everywhere covered with beautiful flowers and nutritious grasses. Ash, walnut, cherry, willow, cotton-wood, and many other forest-trees grow along the course of the streams, and large oak-trees are seen on the very tops of some of the highest mountains in the Sierra Prieta.

The agricultural resources of Arizona have been underrated. It is true, the greater portion of the "Gadsden purchase" is made up of sterile waste; of great, sandy plains, and "mal pais" plateaus, in which the "Lost Mountain" ranges can be seen days before the traveler is able to reach them. But even here the valleys of the Colorado, the Gila, the Santa Cruz, San Pedro, Arivaypa, and San Simon contain thousands of acres of the most fertile bottom-lands, which need only irrigation to make them yield abundant harvests. This has been demonstrated in the present generation by the settlers of the Gila, in the neighborhood of Florence and Adamsville, and those of the Salt River Valley, at Phoenix and vicinity, as it was proved centuries ago by the aborigines of that country-now an extinct race. Indeed, the remnants and monuments of that former civilization are so abundant all over Arizona as to leave no doubt that all this vast region was once thickly inhabited by an industrious and thriving agricultural people. The Pima Indians, living at present upon their large reservation near the mouth of the Salt River and along both banks of the Gila above that point, claim that the great "casas," and the large irrigating canals, unmistakable evidence of which still abounds all over the Territory, were constructed by

H. Ex. 10-15

their forefathers, the Aztecs, and that they themselves are the only tribe left which traces its descent back to that once powerful people. All the agricultural products of Southern California and Northern Mexico, Indian corn, wheat, barley, oats, grapes, figs, oranges, lemons, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, the castor-bean, etc., thrive in this southern portion of Arizona, wherever the land can be irrigated. And as to grazing lands, there are millions of acres covered with the best grasses, in many detached parts of the "Gadsden purchase," especially in the southeastern corner of that portion of Arizona; and that country would be covered with cattle-ranches to-day, as it has been when first settled by Mexicans one hundred years ago, were it not for the savage Apache and the insufficient protection which the Government accords to the settlers.

Middle and Eastern Arizona contain much more arable land than the "Gadsden purchase;" but only the different valleys in the vicinity of Prescott are now occupied by white settlers. Prominent among these are the Val de Chino, Walnut Grove, Williamson's, People's, Kirkland's, Skull, Thompson's, and Agua Frio Valleys, the two first alone with an area little less than 1,000,000 acres. Here all the cereals and roots of the Northern Atlantic States are grown, but the high elevation of this part of Arizona, its mountainous character and the late frosts in the spring, as well as those in the early fall, frequently endanger the crops. On the other hand, this region is well supplied with moisture, not alone during the winter months, when much snow falls, without, however, remaining longer than a few days in the valleys, but also during the months of July and August, when copious and rapid discharges of rain occur, filling all the mountain streams, and saturating the plains. As a grazing country this region cannot be surpassed. A thick growth of grama and bunch-grass covers the whole country, not alone the valleys and plains, but the very tops of the mountains, giving to the pine woods of this region the aspect of beautiful natural parks. Of the region east of Prescott, between the Rio Verde and its tributaries and the New Mexico line, little is known. Only the reports of military expeditions and prospecting parties give a clew to the character and topography of small portions of the country, while the greater part remains to this date unexplored. It is reported that many fine valleys exist in the Mogollon Range, the Pinal Mountains, and the Sierra Blanca, and that the greater portion is a good grazing country. Of the extreme northern and northeastern part of Arizona nothing whatever is known, the thirty-fifth parallel being the northernmost route ever traveled by an exploring expedition across Arizona. None of the smaller expeditions branching off from this route penetrated far to the north and northeast, and we know from them only that the country is a vast elevated plateau made up principally of cretaceous rocks, into which deep gorges and cañons are cut by the streams. Some of the valleys of this region, notably those of the Navajoe country, are reported to be fertile and to present conditions favorable for agriculture, while the greater area of the plateau is said to be a fine grazing country.

Many different tribes of Indians inhabit the Territory of Arizona, a few of which are friendly to the whites and live upon reservations, while the greater number are intensely hostile.

Of the friendly Indians, the Pimas, and a small tribe living close to them, the Maricopas, hold the first rank in importance, not alone on account of numbers, but also because they are much more civilized and physically as well as morally a better class of Indians. I have mentioned before that they claim to be the direct descendants of the Aztecs; and if

a splendid physical development of the race, as well as the high state of civilization they had attained when the white people first entered their domain, can entitle them to this distinction, it must certainly be accorded to them. Captain Grossmann, the Indian agent for the Pimas and Maricopas, has made the habits and legends of these tribes a subject of much study and research, and I hope that his investigations may yet determine the correctness or fallacy of their assertions. The Pimas and Maricopas raise annually much more corn, wheat, beans, melons, etc., than they need for their own sustenance, and their stock of horses and work cattle increases steadily from year to year. They are the deadly foes of the Apaches, into whose country they make frequent expeditions, and by whom they are much more feared than are the soldiers stationed in the Territory.

The Papagos are another friendly tribe, and have, like the Pimas, permanent homes. They live south of the Gila, and their villages are scattered along the line of Sonora, in the valleys of the Santa Cruz, Sonoita, etc. They devote their energies principally to stock-raising, of which they own large herds. They, too, are continually at war with the Apaches and remain the steadfast friends of the whites.

The Mojaves are a powerful tribe, living along the Colorado River above La Paz, their principal villages being located between the Chemehuevis Valley and Fort Mojave. They support themselves by agriculture like the Pimas, but cultivate neither as much nor as good land as the former. Their stock of working cattle and horses is limited, and the irrigation of their lands is attended with much difficulty. The tribe is physically a very fine one, but stands morally far below the Pimas.

The Yumas, Cocopas, and Chemehuevis are three small tribes living upon the Lower Colorado, none of which deserve more than mention. The Utes on the Upper Colorado, the Moquis and Navajoes in Northeastern Arizona, complete the list of friendly Indians. The latter are a very important and rich tribe.

Of the hostile Indians in Arizona, the Apaches are the most powerful and dangerous to the country. They have always been the enemies of the Mexicans, and their raids into that republic often extend as far south as Durango. Up to 1859 they lived at peace with the Americans, but since that time they have waged a relentless war upon all whites. They are not a brave tribe, always avoiding an open fight, in marked distinction from the Indians of the northwestern plains. They invariably attack small traveling parties and trains from ambush, and these only when there is no possible chance of failure. Their sole object of attack is apparently plunder, and to get this they murder those in the way of accomplishing their object. Their raids, always conducted in small parties of generally less than one hundred warriors, extend all over the Territory of Arizona, with the exception of a narrow strip of country along the Colorado River, and a hundred miles of the Lower Gila. The nation is divided into several tribes, the Pinal-Apaches, the Tontos, Coyoteros, and Apache-Mojaves. The Pinal-Apaches live in the Pinal Mountains, southwest of the Mogollon Range; the Tontos on the Tonto Platean, between the Agua Frio and Rio Verde; the Coyoteros in the southern foot-hills of the Mogollon Range and the Sierra Blanca; and the ApacheMojaves west of Prescott, in the Aztec Range, their principal rancherias being on the Santa Maria River, which empties into Bill Williams's Fork. It is thus seen that the Apaches are distributed over the greater portion of Middle and Eastern Arizona, and their roving habits tend still more toward bringing them into frequent collision with the white settlers and the peaceable Indians all over the Territory. They are very much feared

and hated by both whites and Indians, but the frequent expeditions against them are generally rather barren of results. It is difficult to get them to fight a respectable number of armed men, and on the approach of the various expeditions organized against them they have almost invariably scattered through their mountain fastnesses, where it is in vain to follow the small bands of five or ten who remain together. These Indians have done more to retard the settlement of Arizona and the development of her mines than all other causes. As soon as a miner's camp was formed within their range, they would hover about until they had stolen the last of the working stock and killed or driven off the last one of the miners. Very few mining-camps have been able to outlast this continual danger, and those that have so far withstood the Apaches have done so at a fearful cost of property and humau life. So long as this tribe is allowed to roam all over Arizona, it is in vain to expect that any settlements can permanently maintain themselves.

Besides the Apaches, the Hualpais or Wallapis, living in the Cerbat Range, near the Diamond River, and in part of the Aquarius Range, are the only dangerous Indians. This tribe has come into the forts during last summer, professing to be tired of war, and suing for peace. Since then they have really been friendly; the portion living in the Aquarius Range alone having committed some 'new depredations. Should they remain peaceable, some of the most promising mining districts in the Territory would be opened.

GENERAL GEOLOGY OF ARIZONA.

It is not within the province of this report to give a detailed and connected description of the geology of Arizona; nor were the means and the time at the disposal of Mr. Eilers, during his visit in that Territory, sufficiently ample to enable him to make more than a cursory ex amination of the routes traveled over, and a more extended one of the mining districts proper. His observations extended from Fort Yuma over the Gila River route to Maricopa Wells, and thence to Tucson, from Tucson to the Gila, at Adamsville and Florence, thence to the Salt River at the upper crossing, to Camp McDowell, Phoenix, Hassyampa Cañon, Wickenburg, Camp Date Creek, Kirkland Valley, Skull Valley, Pres cott, the greater part of the Sierra Prieta from its northern terminus, the Granite Mountain, to its southern extremity, the Bradshaw Moun tain, including all the mining districts of this range; from Prescott by the northern or Mojave road to Camp Tollgate, thence through parts the Aztec and Aquarius Ranges to the Cerbat and Black Mountains, thence to the Colorado River at Fort Mojave, and down that river to La Paz, thence east to Wickenburg and back to Tucson. For other por tions of the Territory, notably the country along the Great Cañon of the Colorado, the Colorado Chiquito, and parts of the country north and east of the same, I have freely used the excellent report of Professor Newberry; and for that portion of the country lying north and east of Tucson, along the line of the thirty-second parallel road, that of Dr. Thomas Antisell. The lowest portion of Arizona Territory, topographically, is the region in the vicinity of the mouth of the Gila River, as a glance at the map and the river system of the coun try suffices to show. The elevation above the sea-level, at Fort Yuma, is only 200 feet. From here eastward, an apparently level country, but rising gradually and imperceptibly, extends to the line of New Mexico. From this plain rise isolated mountains and mountain ranges, suddenly and without that gradual elevation which a series of foot-hills impart

to mountains in other countries. No valleys, as generally understood, lie between these "lost mountains," but the level, sandy plain extends directly and with nearly the same level from the foot of one mountain to that of the other. This peculiar configuration of the surface is also met with on the La Paz and Wickenburg road, and for a considerable distance along the road from Fort Mojave, toward Prescott; also along the entire length of the road from Tuscon to Wickenburg and some distance north of that town. All the main mountain chains have here a northwest and southeast trend, and the only exceptions to this general direction are furnished by the Black Mountains and the Cerbat Range, in the northwestern corner of the Territory, the axis of their upheaval running very nearly north and south.

In Middle Arizona, especially in the Prescott country and north of it, around the San Francisco Mountain, the surface wears a different aspect. The Sierra Prieta and the Aztec Range send foot-hills out in every direction, and especially their flanks sink very gradually down to the level of the high plateau surrounding the San Francisco Mountain toward the northeast and to the mesas sloping toward the Colorado on the southwest. The country here has attained a considerable elevation above sea-level, the town of Prescott, located in the valley of Granite Creek, near the northern terminus of Granite Mountain, being over 6,000 feet above the sea, while the Tonto and San Francisco plateaus to the east and northeast of Prescott reach an altitude of from 8,000 to 9,000 feet. The San Francisco, a grand volcanic cone, is the highest mountain in Arizona, its top towering over 11,000 feet above the sea. North and northeast of the San Francisco an immense mesa, increasing in altitude toward the Navajo country and the Utah line, stretches for hundreds of miles.

The Mogollon Range, in the eastern part of Arizona, presents the most marked exception to the general northwest and southeast direction of the mountains. Its axis runs very nearly east and west, and joins the Sierra Blanca, also an east and west range, which extends beyond Arizona into New Mexico. The plains along the Lower Gila are entirely made up of Quaternary and Tertiary deposits, which also form the Great Sonora Desert to the south of that stream. The first mountains which the traveler meets on his way up the Gila, after leaving the granitoid knoll on which Fort Yuma is located, and through the middle of which, singularly enough, the Colorado runs at present, are those in the neighborhood of Gila City. Their low foot-hills contain the gold-placers, which at one time caused considerable excitement, and have been again worked since last summer by a San Francisco company. They are sixteen miles east of Fort Yuma, and appear to be the southern continuation of the Castle Dome Range on the north bank of the river, having, like the first, a northwest and southeast trend, and being separated from it by the Gila River and low foot-hills, which on both banks of the river are made up of the same materials, namely, granitic rocks and metamorphic slates, the latter leaning against the foot of the more elevated ridge, which is entirely composed of syenite. The slates of the footbills stand almost vertical, and are much contorted, containing a great number of quartz-bands, running in all directions. The low hills immediately at the river-bank are entirely denuded of gravel, while those nearer to the main ridge are thickly covered with angular granitic and slate detritus. East of these hills no more mountains are encountered until, twenty-eight miles farther over a large sandy plain, Antelope Peak is reached. This mountain rises about 500 feet above the level of the Gila, and presents an abrupt, almost vertical face toward that river. It