The San Francisco call., 1896-10-18

There are more marvellous things to the
square mile III the country lying forty-five
miles southwest of Yuma and l25 miles
southeast of San Diego than in al the
West. That is what prospectors and others
say who have been in that section of
Lower California, for it is just below the
boundary-line dividing the United States
from Mexican territory. There are those
who say that not even the Yellowstone
Park can show such strange sights as this
part OF the desert lying adjacent to the
Cocopah Mountains.
Some day in the not distant future
: capitalists will make great resort here in
the Cocopah region, and their guests will
include the lame, the halt and the blind,
as we'll as the tourists on pleasure bent.
The former will go to bathe in the mud
springs, which are impregnated with
various strong minerals; to lave in the
clear hot springs or the ice-cold springs
and to breathe the rare atmosphere of the
balmy desert. Wonderful cures have been
effected by these mud springs and the
waters near by. Men have gone from
Yuma to San Diego on cots in the beds OF
wagons, suffering all the tortures OF
rheumatism, and in a few weeks come
back to their friends apparently well and
increased in flesh.
But the strangest thing about the Coco
pah region, however Is the presence OF sc
many mud volcanoes. Within an area oi
few miles there are hundreds of spout
ing and tuning volcanoes, throwing black
mud to a height of ten or twenty feet and
keeping up an incessant sputtering that
sounds like the rattle OF musketry. Some
of the tiny craters are never still, while
others are inactive for weeks and then be
come-doubly active again. Down in the
depths of the earth dull rumbling, inces
SAINT and terrifying, is always heard, anc
the surface Of the ground for great dis
tance around the volcanoes is hot and bar
ren of all sem biance of vegetation.
A lake of black water, black as ink, anc
called by the Indians Big Medicine Lake
lies near the volcanoes. Its depth ha
never been ascertained by either the In
dians or tie white men familiar with th'
region, and the body of water is believed
to be unfathomable. No living thing in
habits the water, although it covers al
area of three by one and half mics. !
is the source of the stream known a.
Hardy's Colorado River, which emptie
into the Colorado below Yuma. This is
sluggish stream and very tortuous, thu
distance to the Colorado by its winding
course being about lbs miles, while by
wagon the distance is only sixty miles.
The volcano region is on the highes
part of the desert between San Diego anc
Yuma. The water in that locality comes
from the Colorado about twenty miles be
low Yuma, forming a branch carrying
about one-fourth of the Colorado. Thi
branch empties into large natural reser
voir almost exactly in the center of th
desert and about twenty miles square
After the reservoir fills the water flow
north, south and west TO all parts OF tn
desert, constituting one of the mos
complete natural irrigation systems il
the world. All the LAND embraced il
the volcano region Is owned by Do
Guillermo Andrade, whose possession
are said to amount to several milliol
acres in Lower California and Sonora
on the Mexican mainland. Springs