Excerpt from The Geography and Resources of Arizona Sonora: An Address Before the American Geographical Statistical Society The word Arizona is undoubtedly derived from the Aztec, In the original it is Arizuma, and the change is a corruption into the present word, which is accepted as Spanish. We have no decided information as to its meaning, but the impression among those who have been curious enough to investigate, is that it signifies "silver-bearing." This impression gains strength from the fact that the Arizona mountains are very rich in silver, and that a tradition of a silver mine, called La Arizona, of incredible richness, still exists among the Mexican people near the frontier of our newly-acquired Territory. The proposed Territory of Arizona is bounded on the north by the parallel of latitude 33 40'; on the cast by Texas; on the south by Texas and the Mexican States of Chihuahua and Sonora; and on the west by the Colorado river, which separates it from California. This great region is about seven hundred miles long, with an average width of about one hundred and forty miles, and contains nearly 100,000 square miles. It is twice as large as New York; embraces within its borders three of the largest rivers on the continent west of the Mississippi, viz: the Rio Grande, the Gila, and the Colorado of the West. The Colorado is the only navigable stream, and by its waters and those of the Gulf of California, Arizona is placed in easy communication with San Francisco and the Pacific coast. The natural outlet for the productions of Arizona must he through a port on the Gulf of California, and the acquisition of Arizona necessitates the possession of Sonora. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."