The Arizona sentinel., 1878-02-16
Yuma in 1854.
(By Lieut.. ". Michler.)

in bend opposite the mouth of the Gila,
 rises up {. low irregular hill, from seventy
 10 eighty feet in night; on the water side
 khere is c perpendicular cliff; the other isides are less steep, but equally rugged.
 This hill is of Plutonic origin, and presents
 bleak, dreary appearance. The surface is covered with sharp, volcanic rocks, cut ting like glass under the tread, and is des-
 titute of every form of vegetation, except
 euphorbia usea by the Indians as an an-
 tidote against the bite of the rattl1snake.
 Such is the site of the military post of Fort
 Yuma. This hill, cleft by the Colorado at
 Its junction with the Gila, and extending
 short distance, unites with larger mass
 of the same formation. A mile further
 south is another isolated hill about 260
 feet high, called Sierra Prieta, with its base
 imbedded in the white sands of the desert.
 These hills were once one ard the same;
 one river running around it's north and
 the other its south base (their old beCs be-
 ing still traceable), and both uniting on
 the west. By some freak in the laws of
 nature, an eruption in the bowels of the
 earth caused an upheaving of this whole
 section of country, and changed the beds of these rivers, the one now runs due south and the other due north, before uniti..g
 Their currents act on the same line and are
 diametrically opposed, and as the waters
 meet, neither willing to yield, they open a
 passage through the highest part of the hill, turning a. right angles to their orig inal courses and flowing toward the west. The cleft thus made is 240 feet in width. The Colorado furnishes more than two- thirds of the water. At an average stage at the junction, the quantity discharged per second was found, from q mean of several experiments, to be 6249 cubic feet, and the velocity three feet per second. At the same point the depth of the channel is about eighteen feet. It then widens and
 becomes shallow. By daily observations with the barometer, the level of the rivers at their confluence was found to be 275 feet above that of the sea at San Diego. Lieut. Wheeler's survey established the level to be at 120 feet. MT. Hood, of the Southern Pacific survey, arrived at about the same figures in actually running a iIne of levels from the seaboard to Yuma. ED.]
 The Colorado, as its name signifies, is of a reddish color, and carries down immense quantities of sand and mud. The water is sweet and excellent for drinking but does not bear keeping long. The Gila is clearer and its temperature warmer but somewhat brackish in its taste, owing to the large quantity ot earthly salts held in solution.
 For twenty miles above the post the Colorado spreads out into a wide and shal- low sheet of water; but above that, to the entrance of the Great Canon, it becomes more narrow and Ceep. An expedition under Major (since GeneraD HeintZelman ascended this river in boats in September, 1852 The belief is entertained and strongly advocated, that the Colorado will be the means of supplying the Mormon territory, instead of tEe great extent of land trans portation now used for that purpose. With this idea prominent in the minds of specu- ulators, a city on paper, bearing the name of Colorado City, has already been sur veyed, the streets and blocks marked out and many of them sold. It is situated on | the left bank, opposite Fort Yuma.
 The Colorado is said to have but few | the Gila has several, emptying in above and below the Pima villages. The | annual rise in both rivers usually takes | place in the months of May and June, | as late as July, and is caused by ! the melting of the snows in the mountains | near their head waters; the freshets are | not of long duration. Frequently the one | stream will be up and the other down. The Gila becomes so low that a sand bar forms | at its mouth during the summer, and at | no time does it supply much water. The | Colorado, on the contrary, is navigable for | small steamers, drawing two and two and | a half feet of water Sailing vessels take stores from the Pacific through the Gulf of California, and up the river, sixty miles above its mouth, to Point Invincible, or near Hardy's Colorado, and there discharge their cargoes upon the river steamers; the ttter then transport them ninety miles to the junction-the present contract price per ton being seyenty-five dollars and the boats carrying fifty to sixty tons. All that is changed since advent of the Southern Pacific railroad. ED.] The navigation is pretty good but, like all streams of the same nature, the channel frequently changes, owing to the shifting sands and instability of it's banks Tie nature of the