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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by

JOHN H. CARMANY,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

SAN FRANCISCO:

PRINTED BY JOHN H. CARMANY & Co.

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Progress-Report Surveys West of the One-Hundreth Meridian in 1872 (By Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler).

Rape of the Gamp (By C. Welsh Mason).

Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education for 1874 (By John Eaton).

Satires of A. Persius Flaccus (By Bail L. Gildersleeve).

Skew Arches (By E. W. Hyde].

Spain and the Spaniards (By N. L. Thiéblin)..

....

Tales of the Argonauts (By Bret Harte).

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THE

OVERLAND MONTHLY

DEVOTED TO

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY.

VOL. 15.-JULY, 1875.- No. 1.

THE CALIFORNIAN DESERT BASIN.

HE Pacific States, being compar- ers, and the cause of most of the ills

some large areas but little known, some even only partially explored, and about which very little has been published. Some portions of California are in this condition, especially the great Desert Basin, extending from the head of the Gulf of California northward, embracing the Colorado Desert, the Mohave Desert, and the Amargoso or Death Valley, all connected with one another, and forming a continuous basin, much of which is as low as or lower than the level of the ocean. Dreary and forbidding in character, difficult and dangerous to cross, destitute of water or vegetation except in small portions like the gases of the African deserts, burning under a tropical heat, swept by terrible sand-storms, and only inhabited by strange animals and reptiles, this great extent of country is considered worthless for human habitation, and, by its climatic influences, a curse to the inhabitable and fertile portions of the State, the dread of travel

ject. But the rest of the State is rapidly filling up. Tule-lands are being reclaimed at heavy expense. Railways are projected and building, which will cross the desert basin at several places; and it is a matter of interest to all to find out whether it is possible to do anything to redeem so immense an area from its dreary desolation and bring it into a condition to contribute something to the general good. The following notes, prepared from observations made by the writer during several expeditions into this territory within the past five years, though with no attempt at detailed scientific description, may be found of interest, and to give some new ideas of a region so little known or described. The portion treated of lies in San Diego County, and, for a better understanding of its peculiarities, a few preliminary words may be said in regard to that portion of the State.

The county of San Diego is one of

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by JOHN H. CARMANY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

VOL. 15.-2.

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