was very scarce. Since then an experiment has been tired and proven successful that changes the whole matter. Thanks have been constructed similar to those in Sonora, and recent rains have filled one of them. This makes only one single stretch without certain water of forty miles between here and Prescott. Other tanks are in process of construction, and the question of water may be considered as settled. It seems to me that the best mode of placing troops into Arizona is to transport them by water to the mouth of the river. If would certainly be more expeditious and cheaper, while it would land the men here in fine health and spirits, having avodided the terribe desert between Wilmington and the river. By using the road from La Paz to Tuscon via Wickenburg and the Pimas, troops would march by the settled portions of Central Arizona, where industry is to-day completely paralyzed by the hostile Indians. They would pass by the doors of four-fifths of the inhabitants nrth of the Gila. If they march from Fort Yuma to the Pimas they pass two ranches, or rather one ranch, Agua Caliente and Mr. Allen's trading station, at Maricopa Wells, over 200 miles of desert, grassless, with dust from one to two feet deep in the valley of the Gila, where there is a torrid climate then months of the year. All the way the mining camps and towns on the central route are guarding the flanks of a column moving along the Gila. The route from La Paz is on a table-land about 2,000 feet above the sea, covered with grass. It is the only route to-day the citizen is using in this Territory. Over it goes the mail. The Mojave road has been until very recently impassable from snow. Every mine north of the Gila that is to-day yielding anything is either on the Colorado River or this central route. The deep interest I feel in having the present military movements a success will, I trust, be xcuse enough for troubling you with this.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

J. P. ALLYN,

U. S. Judge.

STAR CITY, April 7, 1865.

Major McDERMIT:

Express just in from Lieutenant Wolverton requesting us to forward the following report: "Yesterday a detachment attacked a small band of Shoshones, killing five". He send twenty men to Paradise to-day; asks that there be more force sent immediately; confirms report of massacre in Paradise. Wolverton now on Humboldt River forty-five miles northeast of Star City. Thirty armed citizens have left for Paradise; fifteen more for Granite Creek, Honey Lake road. More men going to-night.

E. F. DUNNE.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON,
Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., April 7, 1865.

Colonel R. C. DRUM,

Assistant Adjutant-General, San Francisco, Cal.:

SIR: I have delayed writing as regards the necessity of additional cavalry and the proposed uses of the troops in this district, on account of suceeding unexpctedly to the command of the district. Some days after doing so were necessary to inform myself as to the dispositions made and proposed by the former commander, who, during his short