Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-09
THE SALTON SEA.
It Is Still Steadily Ris-
ing.
No New Features Of Any Mo-
ment.
Desert PrOspectOrs Who Narrowly
Escaped Being Drowned.
They Have to lmprovise Raft and Voy-
age Across the Sands-Colonel d.
X. Allen Advances
Theory.

The Salton sea last night was reported
to have risen it's daily average of two
inches, but no new features occurred OF
any note. Some interesting matter rela-
tive to the phenomena will be found
below:
ENGINEER swAINE's EXPEDITION.
YUMA, Ariz., July s. Southern Paci-
fic Engineer Swaine arrived this morn
ing with the outfit for trip to explore
Salton lake. Swaine believes Carter's
report concerning the source and supply
of water to be correct. Carter will guide
the party. being familiar with the
desert region. The main crevasse fur
nishing the large amount OF water from
the Colorado, from Carter's account,
will require piling to close. Engineer
Swaine is OF the opinion the necessary
work to be done in shutting out the
water will not be difficult or expen-
sive.
The news received in this city yester-
day about the Salton flood was very
meagre. The water rose it's daily avel-
age of two inches, and the railroad COM
pany believe that Mr.. Carter's report of
q large break in the Colorado river,
eight miles below Ell Rio explains the
phenomenon. Assistant Superinten-
dent Muir, of the Southern Pacific COM
pany, Yesterday stated that there was
absolutely no truth in the reports that
the main line of the road was in any
danger; the water will not reach it for
months, even if it should increase in it's
rate of advance, while now that the
source of supply had been ascertained,
the company will assuredlv take steps
to stop the break in the bank.
CROSSING THE DESERT BY BOAT.
w. w. Webb and L. N. Gridley are
two San Diego men who started from
this city, says the San Diego Sun of
Tuesday, on the 23d of May, with light
wagon, two horses and two burros, to-
gether with the necessary supplies and
implements for prospecting tour on
the desert. Then they were fair-skinned
young fellows, and now, on their return
from the Colorado basin, they are tanned
like Indians. They are also minus
a wagon, two burros and most of their
camp impedimenta.
Some two weeks or more ago Messrs.
Webb and Gridley were in camp in a
dry slough of the New river, about 12O
miles northeast of this city. A small
pool near by furnished stagnant water
and they set about making filter for it.
began to fill with fresh water, and be-
fore they knew it, almost, they were in
danger Of drowning. The great Color
odo Hood had hpuun
The prospectors shook their traps
together and started for dry land,
which they found some three miles
away. But they had scarcely made
camp when the flood was on them
and they had to move again, and still
again swimming their horses over
deep streams where but the day
before had been blistering sands.
They went this way and that to escape
the freshet, their horses and burros
swimming or wading, and finally got to
the sand hills about twenty miles from
Yuma. Here another river was met so
wide and deep that it could not be
The next course lay west, but the
young men found the sand hills hard to
get out of with the wagon and animals.
BY sheer good luck the thing was done
without accident, and in the course of
day or two they made camp on piece
of high ground and were joined by three
Indian bucks, a squaw and two children,
who were also trying to escape. :.
After this it was still more serious
question whether Webb and Gridley
could escape the water. which still rose
around them, but the march-or wade
was cheerfully resumed, and on the Oath
of June they reached an elevation and
were surprised to find a rude fort. This
was twenty-five or thirty miles north and
east of Indian Wells. The fort, which
has long been abandoned, was 800 feet
square, its walls six feet high, and inside
of it were the ruins of house and
the charred remains OF some heavy
But there was no abatement OF the
flood, and the next day the fort was
pretty we'll surrounded by the great bnt
shallow lake. Then the prospectors set
about making boat. They took cracker
boxes and fastened them together with
mesquite sticks and stretched their
down at the corners. Then they en-
barked, pushing the rude craft with
long-handled shovels. The horses were
led behind, but the wagon and the
burros were abandoned. The voyage
began on June 25th, and last Friday the
party landed at Coyote holes, on the
eastern slope of the Cuyamaca range.
The heat experienced on the latter part
OF the journey was l40 degrees.
Yesterday Messrs. Webb and Gridley
returned to San Diego, and this after
noon recounted their adventures to the
Sun. They say there is no doubt that
the water comes from the Colorado
river, and think the channel has been
permanently changed. This would Gre
ate an inland fresh water lake.
COLONEL ALIENS THEORY.
Colonel D. K. Allen, who knows as
much about the Colorado basin as any
other white man, writes the San Diego
Sun as follows about the new sea at Sal
ton:
For many years the Colorado river
when on its winter or spring rise has
overfowed its banks some forty miles
below Yuma, and the water has set back
to the west and northwest for from twen-
ty to thirty miles, filing up the various
branches of New river and overflowing
much OF the country adjacent to it. In
ths great floods of '62 and '84 the water
ran back to the great sink at Indian
Wells 100 miles west of Yuma, and filed
that whole region with water, which re-
mained there several months, but never
to one-half of the amount which covers