The Newtown bee., 1904-03-25

80 degrees. The surroundings are
 quite pretty, the depot and its grounds,
 which are located on the banks of the Colorado river separating Arizona from California. Palms, peppers and other
 semi-tropical trees made dense shade,
 while everywhere calla lilies, pansies,
 geraniums and other choice flowers
 abounded. We made long stop there, giving chance to get good dinner and
 to see score and more of representa-
 tive Indians of the Yuma tribe. In
 place of dinner chose the Indians.
 There were between 20 and 30. mostly
 squaws, who had seated themselves
 upon the ground with blankets over
 their shoulders, and bare heads dense
 ly covered with long black hair hang
 ing loosely over their shoulders-fair
 specimens of fast disappearing race.
 In front of them they had a blanket
 spread out, on which they displayed
 various forms of bead work, pottery,
 etc., and from which many sales were
 made. To me they were p1tiably in-
 teresting and I studied their stolid
 features until the signal blew for our
 departure. Some features are indeli-
 bly, stamped upon my mind. Two old
 squaws in particular, who, I am sure,
 must be past the century mark, came
 down to the train scantily clad, with
 leather soles tied by thongs, on their
 feet. One was nearly bent double;
 with deeply lined furrows over her face,
 and long staff on which she leaned.
 She dropped herself upon the dry earth
 under burning sun, and looked up to
 us "pale faces" in way that excited
 both interest and deep pity. Iwould not for anything want that picture of
 the Yuma Indians obliterated from my mind.
 When 984 miles west of New Orleans we had reached the summit of eleva- tion on the Southern Pacific, 5082 feet, from that point gradually dropping on our westward way, until at Yuma we are only 140 feet above sea level.
 Here we are in the extreme south western part of Arizona and have only to cross the Colorado river just above where it empties into the Gulf of Cali fornia to>fnd ourselves in the Golden state. Our train speeds on until we reach Salton, 94 miles distant, to find CR0 foof ho1nvu Here are immense salt beds lying on the surface, that have only to be shov- eled up and cleaned, to become a use- full commodity of commerce to be ship ped. All this desert section was at one time the ocean, as evidenced by the salt deposits and marks of the tur- bulent waters. Had our train been on | schedule time I would have missed | what very much wished to see, for it | had been one of the sights that had | particularly impressed my wife on her previous trip, a mirage on the desert. | It was about o'clock in the after | noon, we had been anticipating our near approach to the desired locality, | myswife had talked about it SO enthu- siastically as we were approaching the spot, that she had been pleasantly call ed "the mirage woman," so that we were all we'll primed for the occasion. Our necks were craned and our eyes strained to get the first glimpses of it when the shout came, "there it is, don't you see it, way of in the dis tance near the foot hills" And sure enough, we could have taken our oath that we were passing veritable lake, could see the ripples glistening in the sunshine, and did not have to draw upon very vivid imagination to think there were sail boats upon it and cottages upon the opposite shore. For long distance it seemed to us a great inland sea, very near at hand. But, had we attempted to reach it, we would have been aStonished at the distance and if we had at last come up with it,.it would only have been to find it desolate desert waste, that in years gone by, may have disappointed to the death overland emigrants, who with parching' tongues and weary feet, followed after the illusion only at the last, to lie down and die on the dreary plain. There are also ex- tensive works at Salton, where borax is taken from the mountains and pre- pared for the eastern markets. At Mecca, a little station 12 miles beyond Salton, the United States government is experimenting with the raising of dates, an agent being already upon the ground with quantities of cut tings just brought from Egypt. It is expected that the climate and soil will produce as fine grade of fruit as can be grown in Africa. Next we reach India, a veritable oasis in the desert, where we see very inviting lp-to-date hotel. It is surrounded with luxuriant growth of eucalyptus, palm and pepper trees and is delight fully cool and breezy spot, notwith- it is 20 feet below sea level, and is quite a noted resort for con- sumptives. Here the road enters the San Garzoni pass through the San Bernardine mountains, and at the dis tance of AS miles we reach Banning at of 25S0 feet. Quite a climb, but with pusher and two engines ahead, our time was not so very slow.
 A long stop at Banning gave a chance for leg stretching, and some made foot balls of tin cans. but one