The weekly Arizona miner., 1869-07-03


 other semi-tropcal products" The Report further states that pinon, cottonwood, mes quite, willow and paoveyde shrubs" were seen by the General and his party, upon this portion of the route, and, strange to say, grass, too, was met with. Now, these are conflicting statements, and some people may be at n loss to determine which is true and correct. But, when they learn that General Palmer and party explored the entire region spoken of, for the sole purpose of finding he best practicable route for a railroad, while pr. Hoffman was quacking at San Diego, we feel quite certain that the great majority of read CTS will take the word of the General in pre- ference to the pill of the Doctor.
 Not content with telling the aforemention- ed yarns, and thinking, probably, that he had not entirely purged the people of all favorable ideas regarding our route, the sturdy old pill msn, laid by his pill bags, and wrote the fol- lowing which, if not exactly similar to pre- scription for settling" an impoverished pa- tient, was, no doubt, meant to be fatal in its effects upon the advocates of the Both paral- Tel route He said; East of the Colorado river, mountain plateau, of sufficient alti- tude, to give a good depth of snow every winter is found, and little further along the Mogollon chain of mountains have to be over come at attitudes which give during the win ter months, .faHs of sao'e from thirty 10 |orty fest decp." Upon first seeing this outrageous falsehood in the Ueion, we denounced it as "big lie,n and we now ask our readers to ! overlook the impropriety, if any we commit, in pronouncing its author liar, and proving his liability by facts and assertions which he dare not and cannot dispute. In order to convict him of the charge, we quote as fol- lows, from General Palmcrs Report: "From the Sierra Madre to the Great Col orado, the only place where snow falls in any | quantity is on the Mogoyon range, (San ! Francisco Mountains,) where our line finds it's highest summit between the two oceans, l G,5l0 feet) l crossed this summit twice, | about the middle of November and again about the middle of December, without find | ing any snow. On the first occasion there ! was none even on the top of Mt Agassiz (San ' Francisco Mountain over l2,000 feet above ! the ocean. On the middle of December Mt Agassiz had silvery crown, which extended as far down on the slopes as point about 2OO feet above our heads, the days were warm, and even the nights not unpleasantly | cool for the bivouac, while our animals found the finest grazing everywhere On the march | thence westward to the Colorado river saw no snow even on the highest mountains, and ! the climate was the finest had ever experi- enced.
 ! At Fort Whipple, adjoining Prescott, from | December l, 1866, to December 1, 1867. the number of snowy days were nine; the total | fall of snow, in tle year, 32l inches the mean winter temperature 4l0; the mean summer temperature 7s'; and the mean i yearly temperature 57 deg.
 l On the San Francisco Mountains. about the first of the year Qs54) Whipple found eight 1 inches of snow, but he states that it was no- where drifted; did not form sufficient ob struction to prevent his mules from faring well upon the gramma grass, and that this winter was exceptionally severe. He adds | that Leroux, for three previous winters, had seen these mountain peaks devoid of snow. | Col. F.. B. Willis, who established Fort ! Whipple, informs me that he has had per- | sonal experience in the san Francisco Noun talns during three winters, 1868, '6i and '65, | and somewhat further one from reports of | parties of troops under his command That he has never seen, himself, any snow there except on the high peaks and only knows of two occasions when his parties found any of consequence. He adds: "I believe. from all my knowledge, that the winter fall of snow will not average more than four inches per annnrr, ::a that, 2: ::o time, docs it lie long In the summer the climate is delight fnl, the summer rains falling daily in showers during the hottest months, making it all that is desirable as clinate.n
 General E. F. Beares testimony is even stronger. He states, in letter to me was employed by the War Department, about four years, in the exploration and location of a wagon road on that line, { 35th parallel, and passed two winters on it. During that time do not recall single day in which we ceased work or travel on account of snow, or from the rigor of the climate. passed the latter part ot the month Of January about the summit oi San Francisco Mountains, and the 4th of February, 1858, on it, where found the deep- est snow, and in fact almost the only snow I have ever seen on the line west of the Rocky Mountains It was on the level about six inches deep, and up to the knees in drifts. and covering over six miles, trareled t,itl nly ea1P fully t,eeaty miles during he day On all the southern exposures there was no snow. and after crossing the summit I halted my men and tuned out the mules to graze for an hour before proceeding to Leroux Spring. be- cause the grass on the southern hilisides was so good. In all my experience in that country. repeat that l never laid up a day between Albuquerque and the Colorado on account of snow, or in fact anywhere on the line. nor have ever seen snow deep enough on it to impede | travel. !"