Weekly journal-miner., 1919-02-05
u s. LOOKS INTO HISTORY TOWER
 CALIFORNIA
PROPOSAL THAT AMERICA TAKE OVER MEXICAN PO- SESSION, BRINGS OUT SOME INTERESTING DATA AS TO NEGLECTED LAND
By Associated Press.

mantle Lower California again has come into prominence through the introduction in congress of a bill looking to the purchase of that unique peninsula.
 "Baja' California, rejected by the United States after the war with Mexico as "the tail-end of an earth quake" though recognized as rich in natural resources is least known, ac- cording to the few who have made a scientific study of the peninsula, of any area of similar size in the west ern hemisphere.
 Lower California, romantically styled "The Mother of California" " has figured in modern history for 400 years. It was in 1527 that the Span ish captain-general, fernando Cor tez, sent one of Balboa's veterans, Alvera de Saavedra, from Tehaunte- pee. on the west coast of Mexico, with instructions to try to find a strait supposed at that time to form a link in a route from Mexico, or New Spain as it was then known, to the newly discovered Spice Islands, known to later generations as the Philippines.
 From Coftez' time down to the present there have passed in review through the pages of Lower Califor- nia's history Spanish conquerors, Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans, and plunderers from many lands, United States troops during the war with Mexico, filibusters intent on setting up an independent govern ment, and lastly the contending fac tioons for supremacy in Mexico's na- tional administration since the over throw of Porfirio Diaz as president.
 It was Diaz who bestowed on Lower California, title of "pobre Baja California" descriptive of her condition in recent years and which translated is Poor Lower Califor- nia."
 Diazs description fits the country just as well as to its typographical aspect, and in some other respects, foH 1t is a jagged peninsula, 76O. miles long, varying ill width from 30. to 150 miles, and traverscd through. out its length by an irregular range of barren mountains of volcanic ori- gin, breaking off abruptly on the gulf side and rambling off in series of low hills to the Pacific coast. It has been described by its most recent ex-. plorer as "A land great in its past and lean in its present. A land where the rattlesnake and the side winder, the tarantula and the SCOT pion multiply, and where sickness is unknown and fivescore years no un- common span of life. A land of strange contradictions"
 While a territorial state of Mexico, it nowhere touches other Mexican soil. being separated from the main land by the waters of the Colorado river and the Gulf of California. In l9lO the population of the entire peninsula was given at 52,244 There IS but or~, railroad in the country
 aside from "wheezy" mine trans
 ways, and that one, from Mexicaii to
 Yuma, but 63 miles in length. The
 camlnos" or roads, of the mission
 days have fallen into wretched state and in many places have been prac- tically obliterated.
 The peninsula is rich in mineral wealth, at least one of its silver mines in the southern district, hay ing been operated since l748. Gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, lead, gyp- sum and salt are found, valuable marble for building is everywhere abundant. Mining experts agree that the. mineral resources have hardly been seratcaed.
 Cactus and mesquite have given place in valleys where irrigation has been possible to the cultivation of deciduous fruits, figs, dates, cereals, ana vegetables. Rainfall is scanty and insufficient to support vegeta- ton Tobacco, cotton, grapes, sugar cane and native melons are grown. Horses, cattle and sheep in limited numbers are found in the most fer tile valleys.
 The pearl fisheries of La Paz on the gulf side, have been worked since the first Spanish landed and have netted fortunes to those who have succeeded to the franchises covering the fisheries. Whale fishing has been carried on successfully for more than hundred years off Magdalena Bay on the Pacific side, which has furnished also ground for target