The Arizona sentinel., 1877-08-11

small elevation above sea level ! only 12G feet at Yuma-gives us dense atmosphere. Our air i solid and amply oxygenates blood . with moderate breathing. Else l where, to obtain absence Of atmos. , pheric humidity, one has to seek elevated mountain districts, where weak lungs are distressed by hay. ing to take great gaSps of air in
 order to secure oxygen enough to
 keep their owners alive. Compare
 Yuma with White Pine for in-
 stance; there pneumonia is cpl
 demic, here it is unknown.
 Of the first occupation of this
 section by white people little is
 known; it is matter of tradition
 rather than of record. On the
 Colorado, few miles above Fort
 Yuma, are the ruins of extensive
 buildings. Indian traditions and
 the results Cf excavation indicate
 that these are the ruins of Mis-
 sion or Of a trading post on the
 line of overland travel between
 the older settlements of Mexico
 and the infant colonies of Califor-
 mia. A station on the Gila river and on the trail to Sonora bears the
 nfme of Mission Camp-perhaps
 Tn commemOration. Tradition says that, while most of the men were absent on some expedition,
 the Yuma Indians massacred the
 remaining inhabitants of the now
 nameless Mission. In excavating
 around the site of the altar in the
 old chapel, this being a likely spot
 fora deposit of treasure, Don Pa
 bio Figueroa found the bones and
 long fair tresses of a woman, ac-
 companied by rosary, cross and other trinkets. Good land occurs near the ruins, but no traces re- main Of agriculture. A few miles above them are the since famous gold placers of the Pot-hole. l Across the river,near Castle Dome. 1 are mines of silver and lead that show excavations in which are growing trees of great age. Near the Gila are piles of slag and traces of a smelting furnace for which no tradition accounts. All these traces indicate that the old settlers were thrifty miners as well as propagandistS of the Santisima te. Prior to the Mexican war little about this country was known by Americans. Barren of game it had little attraction for trappers. Pauline Weaver and Bill Williams were among the few who hunted beaver on the upper Colorado, and on the stream now bearing the latter's name. Pauline's memory is kept green m the names given to Weaver pass and Weaver mining district, both in this county. In 1917 Gen. Phll kearny marched his com { nand through the Gila valley and ( something of the country began to { )e known. A Catholic missionary ' lad previously explored and writ C .en a description Of it, and also ' a vocabulary and gram a mar of the languages spoken by 2 he Yuma and M0have Indians, a lil of which are now deposited in ( he archives of the Rosario Mis- n Ion in Lower California. In $ 046-49 gold discoveries and Amer < can acquisition of territory at Ii racted emigrants to the Pacific ] oast. The more northern routes were little known, beset by hos lle Indians and for part of the " ear rendered impracticable by ft now. The 32d parallel route, Via Sl una, was always open, followed n
 level country through the older sC of New Mexico, by 4. he old Presidio of Tucson, through f. he country of the Apaches, then n { peace with the Americans, an ~