Placers existing throughout this region, and large numbers of them had lately come in with considerable quantities of the dust. They were trading it for trifles to the Mexicans. I got some specimens of it which was the same as the California Gold. This was not the time of year (June) for them to work the mines, but in the fall, after the rain has commenced. The greatest drawback to the profitable working of the Placers of this district, is the scarcity of water. If artesian wells succeed, there is little doubt that it will create an important change. West from Tuseon and Tubac, towards the Gulf of California, the country presents more the appearance of a barren waste or desert than any district I have seen. It nevertheless has occasional oases, with fine grazing lands about them, and the mountains, which are more broken and detached, have distinct marks of volcanic origin. The ranges though short, have generally the same parallel direction as those further east. It is the country of the Papago Indians, a peaceful and friendly tribe, extending down to the Gulf coast, where they are mixed up somewhat with the Cocopas of the Colorado. From Sonoita I explored to the Gulf shore, near the mouth of Adair Bay. It was 62 miles, following a dry arroya most of the way, and the point at which I struck the Gulf was in latitude 31 degrees 36 minutes 34 minutes. The "Bay" is about 15 miles across, and from all I could learn, 15 miles long, and represented as having four fathoms of water. It is completely encircled by a range of sand hills, reaching north-west to the Colorado river and south-east as far as the eye could discover. These "sables" are probably eighty or ninety miles in extent, by five to ten broad.

"Notwithstanding it appears to be the most desolate and forlorn-looking spot for eighty miles around the head of the Gulf, the sand hills looking like a terrible desert, nature seems even here, where no rain had fallen for eight months, to have provided for the sustenance of man, one of the most nutritious and palatable vegetables.

"East of the Tinaja Alta or high tank range, lie the famous Sierras del Ajo, now United States territory. These mountains derive their name from the vast deposits of red oxide and green carbonate of copper found about them, and which the Indians have made use of to paint (ajo) themselves with. The mines are unquestionably of great value, and must become important, more particularly from their being situated in the neighborhood of the contemplated railway. The tall Cereus Giganteus and Agave Americana are found in abundance. From the latter plant the natives make the pulque, mezcal and agua-diente; and the petahaya or cereus, produces a fruit from which is made a very pleasant preserve. At the Pimo and Maricopa villages are found wheat, corn, tobaco, and cotton, besides melons, pumpkins, beans, etc. The nature of the soil for great distances in the Gila valley is of a reddish loam; some parts coated with a beautiful crystallization of salt, a quarter to half an inch thick. This seems to be more particularly the case below the Maricopa villages and toward the Rio Salado. The cotton, of which I procured specimens, though cultivated by the Indians in the most primitive manner, exhibited a texture not unlike the celebrated Sea Island cotton. Its fibre is exceedingly soft and silky, but not of the longest staple. Large tracts of land on the Gila and in other portions of this district, appear to possess the same properties of soil; and where, I have no doubt, the finest cotton will soon be extensively raised and brought to its highest state of perfection by proper cultivation."

The climate is thus referred to by Gray:

"One of the most favorable features upon the route in the vicinity of the 32nd degree proposed for the Pacific railway is, its accessibility at all times, admitting of labor being performed in the open air at each season. The nature of the climate through Texas to the Rio Grande has already been referred to, and from thence to the Santa Cruz valley half way to the Colorado, over the elevated plateau of the Sierra Madra, it is equally salubrious and temperate. The rainy season falls in the summer months, and but seldom is snow seen even upon the mountain tops. Towards the Colorado river it is much drier and more torrid, but by no means unhealthy; nor does it prevent out door work the whole of the day during the heated term of summer.

"The great riches of the country, however, are a total waste at the present time, but which the Pacific railroad will at once develop, and make to itself the foundation of a vast revenue. I refer to its metallic wealth, the silver, gold, and copper mines that abound in almost every mountain and valley, between the Rio Grande and the Gulf of California.

"The ores of Chihuahua and Sonora [now Arizona. S. M.] are chiefly sulphuret (lead or iron), or native silver in porphyritic or stratified limestone rocks passing at greater depths into igneous rocks. From loose piles lying upon the surface and evidently picked over, I procured specimens of silver and copper. Three samples representing points on the line of our exploration about equi-distant from each other, viz.: the Rio Grande, the neighborhood of Tubac, and within 90 miles of the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers, were submitted to Dr. I. K. Chilton, of New York, for analysis. He found in one sample of lead ore (argentiferous galena), by fire assay 71 per cent. of lead, and the "LEAD YIELDED SILVER EQUIVALENT to 128 ounces, 1 dwt. to the ton" (of 2000 pounds).

"In another, he found the lead obtained from it to yield silver in the proportion of 72 ounces 5 dwts. to the ton or 2000 pounds.

"The copper specimen was the red oxide, and yielded as follows:

"The Papagos and Pimas Indians, by proper management, might be made very useful, in working upon the road where there is not much rock excavation. They are unlike the Indians of Texas, or the Apaches, living in villages and cultivating the soil, besides manufacturing blankets, baskets, pottery, etc. Quiet and peaceable, they have no fears except from their enemies, the Apaches, and are very industrious, much more so than the lower order of Mexicans, and live far more comfortably. It is astonishing with what precision they construct their acequias—irrigating canals—some of them, the acequias madre, of very large size, and without the use of levelling apparatus, but simply by the eye. Their gardens and farms too are regularly ditched and fenced off into rectangles and circles, with hedges and trees planted as if done by more enlightened people."

The population of the new Territory of Arizona is at present not far from eight thousand, and is rapidly increasing. The Mesilla Valley and the Rio Grande are probably the most thickly populated, containing about five thousand people. A majority of the Mesilla inhabitants are Mexicans, but they will be controlled by the American residents, whose number and influence is constantly on the increase. The Santa Cruz Valley, in which are situated the towns of Tueson, Tubac, Tumacacari, and the mining settlement of Sopori and others, is, next to Mesilla, the most thickly settled. Tueson was formerly a town of three thousand inhabitants; but the majority have been driven off by the Apache Indians. It is fast becoming a thriving American town, and will before long be a place of more importance than ever before. Real estate is already held at high rates, and the erection of buildings shows that American energy is about to change the face of the last half century. Tubac had been completely deserted by the Mexicans. It has been reoccupied by the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company, and now boasts a population of several hundred. The Calabazas valley is also fast filling up with an American