Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1891-07-08
More Asaa, tn. ns-sr, Lake.

Los Angeles papers continue to publish lengthy accounts of the new lake which has recently formed on the desert near Salton. The lat, ter place is 26s feet below sea level, and is the lowest point in the United States. While there seems to be a great abundance of water there at present, there is a strong proba- bilitv that it will disappear soon, and its presence, which has been considered phenomenal, will be ex- plained by natural causes. 4 re- cent telegram from Yuma says:
 The water, which began rising In Salton salt mines Saturday after noon, driving out the laborers, now covers an are of about ten miles square and three to eight feet deep, The lower end of the side track from the railroad Co the salt works is gone. The mines are flooded. Al the Indians wells, sixty miles south, 227 feet above Salton, and forty miles square, the water Is from three to five feet deep, being the overflow of the Colorado river. All that pre- vents this water from flowing into the Salton sink is bank of loose sand. nine feet high and one milo wide. Parties in from the Indian wells report the water we'll up against this. It is thought the water has found an underground passage through the sand into the basin. If so, it will carry the flood into it, as the Colorado fer ten miles, is oyerilowing its west bank and pouring sn immense body of water into the Laguna region al Indian wells.
 The Los Angeles Times, of July, ist, has the following ln regard to 1t; Two men in a boat, who started out yesterday morning from Salton on voyage of exploration, proceeded over the watery waste less than two miles when they returned and re- ported that the water was too shal- low to permit the further progress of their vessel As it was reported during the day that they would strike out again last night, when | the weather became little cooler, it Is thought that the intense heat of 1 the sun as we'll as the shallowness | of the water prompted the return of the navigators from San Pedro. No news ha- vet come from the Indian runner who was sent out on a tour of investigation.
 Thus, the mystery enyeloping the cause of this inundation of the salt bottom is as yet unexplained. though everybody can guess at it's solution. It was reported that some body had caught, in a shallow lake, a smelt--a fish supposed to exist only in salt water. This fact would | indicate a connection with the ocean, but proves nothing, That the water of the lake is salty Is not remarkable considering the fact that its bed Is but mass of salt which would readi- ly be dissolved by the food. The fact appears that no one can be positive whether the flooded region extends five miles or fifty back from the railroad, no explorer having as yet reached its furthermost limit.
 The San Diego Sun of Monday evening has the following: W. T. Lemon who, with his wife and a party of friends has just returned from a camping trip which extend ed to the mountains skirting the edge of the desert, brings . story about a change in the conditions out there which Is interesting and which. furthermore, will afford the weather crsnks new topic of dis cussion.
 He also says they told him the usual summer heat was not felt there until few days ago-.Iune 9th be- ing the first real warm day of the season. Previous to that weather was cool and frequent rains fell, and the streams are now bank full of water which in ordinary years have been dry in April. Near Jscumba spot in the road was found so soft that the horses mired down and were lifted out with much difficulty.
 So far as the appearance of the lake in the desert is concerned. 1t is not believed that it is caused by the flow of water from this side, as the watershed on this side is precipitous and small. It is rather believed that the lake is caused by back water from the Colorado river, which last winter, for the first time in eight years, broke over its banks near Yuma. and which, according to ire quent reports, has continued to in undate a great area of the New River region this side of Yuma. This distance from the Colorado river to the mountain slopes on this side of the desert is nearly 100 miles, and if the lake can now be seen from this side it means that big area of what has heretofore been a scorching desert is now a moisture-yielding lake.