70 KANSAS AND THE COUNTRY BEYOND. “The coal bed at the Placer Diggings is very accessible and easily worked, measuring from four feet eight inches. to four feet ten inches in thickness, and is generally very free from earthy or other impuri- ties. It seems to be a true Anthracite, not semi-bituminous, but as destitute of bitumen as the Pennsylvania variety.” Crossing the Rio Grande at Albuquerque, the line of the road pur- sues a western course over the Sierra Madre, (or, as some maps have it, the Sierra de los Mimbres,) and enters Arizona about midway between the northern and southern boundaries of the Territory. But of that important Territory—containing, probably, more mines of gold, silver and copper than any other portion of our national domain of equal extent—I propose to speak in my next letter. a LETTER XVII.— Arizona — California. AutrauHEeNny Orry, July 31, 1867. ARIZONA. Tus large Territory, the area of which is 120,912 square miles, is bounded on the north by Utah, on the east by New Mexico, on the west by California, and on the south by Sonora, one of the most valu- able of the States of Mexico. Its northern line is on the same parallel as the southern line of Kansas, 37 degrees; its southwestern corner, on the Colorado river at Fort Yuma, about forty miles above tide, is in latitude 32 degrees 30 minutes. From the Rio Grande at Albuquerque, where it is intended that this road shall cross that river, to the eastern boundary of Arizona in lati- tude 35 degrees, the distance is about 120 miles. From the river to the summit of the Sierra Madre range is about ninety miles, up which the ascent is said to be gentle. On the western side the country descends, first to the table-lands of Central Arizona, and thence to Colorado and the Gulf of California, a distance of four to five hundred miles. Entering Arizona a little north of the middle of the eastern bound- ary, the route runs directly through the midst of the Territory, pass- ing by the town of Prescott, the capital, thence in the same general direction, down the valley of Williams river to its mouth in latitude thirty-four degrees thirty minutes. To this point the Colorado affords good steamboat navigation at nearly all seasons from the head of the Gulf of California. Between the point where the route enters the Territory to the town of Prescott, a distance of about 150 miles, the country has a considerable elevation, is well watered, and has a healthy and delicious