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+Project Gutenberg's Etext of Arizona Sketches, by Joseph A. Munk
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+Arizona Sketches
+
+by Joseph A. Munk
+
+December, 1996  [Etext #756]
+[Date last updated: September 23, 2005]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etext of Arizona Sketches, by Joseph A. Munk
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+
+ARIZONA SKETCHES by Joseph A. Munk
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I.    A ROMANTIC LAND
+II.   MY FIRST TRIP TO ARIZONA
+III.  THE OPEN RANGE
+IV.   RANCH LIFE
+V.    THE ROUND-UP
+VI.   RANCH HAPPENINGS
+VII.  A MODEL RANCH
+VIII. SOME DESERT PLANTS
+IX.   HOOKER'S HOT SPRINGS
+X.    CANON ECHOES
+XI.   THE METEORITE MOUNTAIN
+XII.  THE CLIFF DWELLERS
+XIII. THE MOQUI INDIANS
+XIV.  A FINE CLIMATE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+A ROMANTIC LAND
+
+A stranger on first entering Arizona is impressed with the
+newness and wildness that surrounds him.  Indeed, the change is
+so great that it seems like going to sleep and waking up in a
+new world.  Everything that he sees is different from the
+familiar objects of his home, and he is filled with wonder and
+amazement at the many curious things that are brought to his
+notice.  Judging the country by what is common back east, the
+average man is disappointed and prejudiced against what he sees;
+but, estimated on its merits, it is found to be a land of many
+attractions and great possibilities.
+
+A hasty trip through the country by rail gives no adequate idea
+of its intrinsic value, as such a limited view only affords a
+superficial glimpse of what should be leisurely and carefully
+examined to be properly understood or appreciated.  At the first
+glance it presents the appearance of a desert, but to one who is
+acquainted with its peculiarities it is by no means desolate.  It
+furnishes a strong contrast to the rolling woodlands of the far
+east, and to the boundless prairies of the middle west; and,
+though it may never develop on the plan of the older states, like
+California, it has an individuality and charm of its own; and its
+endowment of natural wealth and beauty requires no borrowing from
+neighbors to give it character or success.
+
+It has grand scenery, a salubrious climate, productive soil, rich
+mineral deposits and rare archaeological remains.  It also has a
+diversified fauna and flora.  The peccary, Gila monster,
+tarantula, centipede, scorpion and horned toad are specimens of
+its strange animal life; and, the numerous species of cacti,
+yucca, maguey, palo verde and mistletoe are samples of its
+curious vegetation.  It is, indeed, the scientist's Paradise
+where much valuable material can be found to enrich almost every
+branch of natural science.
+
+Hitherto its growth has been greatly retarded by its remote
+position in Uncle Sam's domain; but, with the comparatively
+recent advent of the railroad, the influx of capital and
+population, and the suppression of the once dreaded and
+troublesome Apache, a new life has been awakened that is destined
+to redeem the country from its ancient lethargy and make it a
+land of promise to many home seekers and settlers.
+
+When the Spaniards under Coronado first entered the land more
+than three hundred and fifty years ago in search of the seven
+cities of Cibola, they found upon the desert sufficient evidence
+of an extinct race to prove that the land was once densely
+populated by an agricultural and prosperous people.  When or how
+the inhabitants disappeared is unknown and may never be known.
+It is even in doubt who they were, but, presumably, they were of
+the Aztec or Toltec race; or, perhaps, of some civilization even
+more remote.
+
+The Pueblo Indians are supposed to be their descendants, but, if
+so, they were, when first found, as ignorant of their ancestors
+as they were of their discoverers.  When questioned as to the
+past they could give no intelligent answer as to their
+antecedents, but claimed that what the white man saw was the work
+of Montezuma.  All that is known of this ancient people is what
+the ruins show, as they left no written record or even tradition
+of their life, unless it be some inscriptions consisting of
+various hieroglyphics and pictographs that are found painted upon
+the rocks, which undoubtedly have a meaning, but for lack of
+interpretation remain a sealed book.  The deep mystery in which
+they are shrouded makes their history all the more interesting
+and gives unlimited scope for speculation.
+
+Arizona is a land that is full of history as well as mystery and
+invites investigation.  It has a fascination that every one
+feels who crosses its border.  Paradoxical as it may seem it is
+both the oldest and newest portion of our country--the oldest in
+ancient occupation and civilization and the newest in modern
+progress.  In natural wonders it boasts of the Grand Canon of
+Arizona, the painted desert, petrified forest, meteorite
+mountain, natural bridge, Montezuma's well and many other marvels
+of nature.  There are also ruins galore, the cave and cliff
+dwellings, crumbled pueblos, extensive acequias, painted rocks,
+the casa grande and old Spanish missions.  Anyone who is in
+search of the old and curious, need not go to foreign lands, but
+can find right here at home in Arizona and the southwest, a
+greater number and variety of curiosities than can be found in
+the same space anywhere else upon the globe.
+
+Arizona is a land of strong contrasts and constant surprises,
+where unusual conditions prevail and the unexpected frequently
+happens.
+
+From the high Colorado plateau of northern Arizona the land
+slopes toward the southwest to the Gulf of California.  Across
+this long slope of several hundred miles in width, numerous
+mountain ranges stretch from the northwest to the southeast.
+Through the middle of the Territory from east to west, flows the
+Gila river to its confluence with the Colorado.  This stream
+marks the dividing line between the mountains which descend from
+the north and those that extend south, which increase in altitude
+and extent until they culminate in the grand Sierra Madres of
+Mexico.
+
+The traveler in passing through the country never gets entirely
+out of the sight of mountains.  They rise up all about him and
+bound the horizon near and far in every direction.  In riding
+along he always seems to be approaching some distant mountain
+barrier that ever recedes before him as he advances.  He is never
+clear of the encircling mountains for, as often as he passes out
+of one enclosure through a gap in the mountains, he finds himself
+hemmed in again by a new one.  The peculiarity of always being in
+the midst of mountains and yet never completely surrounded, is
+due to an arrangement of dovetailing or overlapping in their
+formation.  His winding way leads him across barren wastes,
+through fertile valleys, among rolling hills and into sheltered
+parks, which combine an endless variety of attractive scenery.
+
+An Arizona landscape, though mostly of a desert type, is yet full
+of interest to the lover of nature.  It presents a strangely
+fascinating view, that once seen, will never be forgotten.  It
+stirs a rapture in the soul that only nature can inspire.
+
+Looking out from some commanding eminence, a wide spreading and
+diversified landscape is presented to view.  Though hard and
+rugged, the picture, as seen at a distance, looks soft and smooth
+and its details of form and color make an absorbing study.
+
+The eye is quick to note the different hues that appear in the
+field of vision and readily selects five predominating colors,
+namely, gray, green, brown, purple and blue, which mingle
+harmoniously in various combinations with almost every other
+color that is known.  The most brilliant lights, sombre shadows,
+exquisite tints and delicate tones are seen which, if put on
+canvas and judged by the ordinary, would be pronounced
+exaggerated and impossible by those unfamiliar with the original.
+
+The prevailing color is gray, made by the dry grass and sandy
+soil, and extends in every direction to the limit of vision.  The
+gramma grass of the and region grows quickly and turns gray
+instead of brown, as grasses usually do when they mature.  It
+gives to the landscape a subdued and quiet color, which is
+pleasing to the eye and makes the ideal background in a picture.
+
+Into this warp of gray is woven a woof of green, spreading in
+irregular patches in all directions.  It is made by the
+chaparral, which is composed of a variety of desert plants that
+are native to the soil and can live on very little water.  It
+consists of live oak, pinion, mesquite, desert willow,
+greasewood, sage brush, palmilla, maguey, yucca and cacti and is
+mostly evergreen.
+
+The admixture of gray and green prevails throughout the year
+except during the summer rainy season, when, if the rains are
+abundant, the gray disappears almost entirely, and the young
+grass springs up as by magic, covering the whole country with a
+carpet of living green.   In the midst of the billowy grass
+myriads of wild flowers bloom, and stand single or shoulder to
+shoulder in masses of solid color by the acre.
+
+Upon the far mountains is seen the sombre brown in the bare
+rocks.  The whole region was at one time violently disturbed by
+seismic force and the glow of its quenched fires has even yet
+scarcely faded away.  Large masses of igneous rocks and broad
+streams of vitrified lava bear mute testimony of the change,
+when, by some mighty subterranean force, the tumultuous sea was
+rolled back from its pristine bed and, in its stead, lofty
+mountains lifted their bald beads above the surrounding
+desolation, and stand to-day as they have stood in massive
+grandeur ever since the ancient days of their upheaval.  Rugged
+and bleak they tower high, or take the form of pillar, spire and
+dome, in some seemingly well-constructed edifice erected by the
+hand of man.  But the mountains are not all barren.  Vast areas
+of fertile soil flank the bare rocks where vegetation has taken
+root, and large fields of forage and extensive forests of oak
+and pine add value and beauty to the land.
+
+The atmosphere is a striking feature of the country that is as
+pleasing to the eye as it is invigorating to the body.  Over
+all the landscape hangs a veil of soft, purple haze that is
+bewitching.  It gives to the scene a mysterious, subtle
+something that is exquisite and holds the senses in a magic spell
+of enchantment.
+
+Distance also is deceptive and cannot be estimated as under other
+skies.  The far-off mountains are brought near and made to glow
+in a halo of mellow light.  Manifold ocular illusions appear in
+the mirage and deceive the uninitiated.  An indefinable dreamy
+something steals over the senses and enthralls the soul.
+
+Arching heaven's high dome is a sky of intense blue that looks so
+wonderfully clear and deep that even far-famed Italy cannot
+surpass it.  The nights are invariably clear and the moon and
+stars appear unusually bright.  The air is so pure that the stars
+seem to be advanced in magnitude and can be seen quite low down
+upon the horizon.
+
+The changing lights that flash in the sky transform both the
+sunrise and sunset into marvels of beauty.  In the mellow
+afterglow of the sunset, on the western sky, stream long banners
+of light, and fleecy clouds of gold melt away and fade in the
+twilight.
+
+At midday in the hazy distance, moving slowly down the valley,
+can be seen spiral columns of dust that resemble pillars of
+smoke.  They ascend perpendicularly, incline like Pisa's leaning
+tower, or are beat at various angles, but always retaining the
+columnar form.  They rise to great heights and vanish in space.
+These spectral forms are caused by small local whirlwinds when
+the air is otherwise calm, and are, apparently, without purpose,
+unless they are intended merely to amuse the casual observer.
+
+A cloudy day is rare and does not necessarily signify rain.
+Usually the clouds are of the cumulus variety and roll leisurely
+by in billowy masses.  Being in a droughty land the clouds always
+attract attention viewed either from an artistic or utilitarian
+standpoint.  When out on parade they float lazily across the sky,
+casting their moving shadows below.  The figures resemble a
+mammoth pattern of crazy patchwork in a state of evolution spread
+out for inspection.
+
+The impression that is made while looking out upon such a scene
+is that of deep silence.  Everything is hushed and still; but, by
+listening attentively, the number of faint sounds that reach the
+ear in an undertone is surprising.  The soft soughing of the wind
+in the trees; the gentle rustle of the grass as it is swayed by
+the passing breeze; the musical ripple of water as it gurgles
+from the spring; the piping of the quail as it calls to its mate;
+the twitter of little birds flitting from bush to bough; the
+chirp of the cricket and drone of the beetle are among the sounds
+that are heard and fall soothingly upon the ear.
+
+The trees growing upon the hillside bear a striking resemblance
+to an old orchard and are a reminder of home where in childhood
+the hand delighted to pluck luscious fruit from drooping boughs.
+A walk among the trees makes it easy to imagine that you are in
+some such familiar but neglected haunt, and instinctively you
+look about expecting to see the old house that was once called
+home and hear the welcome voice and footfall of cherished memory.
+It is no little disappointment to be roused from such a reverie
+to find the resemblance only a delusion and the spot deserted.
+Forsaken as it has been for many years by the native savage
+Indians and prowling wild beasts, the land waits in silence and
+patience the coming of the husbandman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+MY FIRST TRIP TO ARIZONA
+
+I recall with vivid distinctness my first trip to Arizona and
+introduction to ranch life in the spring of 1884.  The experience
+made a deep impression and has led me to repeat the visit many
+times since then, with increased interest and pleasure.
+
+During the previous year my brother located a cattle ranch for us
+in Railroad Pass in southeastern Arizona.  The gap is one of a
+series of natural depressions in a succession of mountain chains
+on the thirty-second parallel route, all the way from New Orleans
+to San Francisco over a distance of nearly twenty-five hundred
+miles.  The Southern Pacific Railroad is built upon this route
+and has the easiest grade of any transcontinental line.
+
+Railroad Pass is a wide break between two mountain ranges and is
+a fine grazing section.  It is handsomely bounded and presents a
+magnificent view.  To the north are the Pinaleno mountains, with
+towering Mt. Graham in their midst, that are nearly eleven
+thousand feet high and lie dark in the shadows of their dense
+pine forests.  Far to the south rise the rugged Chiricahuas, and
+nearby stands bald Dos Cabezas, whose giant double head of
+granite can be seen as a conspicuous landmark over a wide scope
+of country.  The distance across the Pass as the crow flies is,
+perhaps, fifty miles.  Beyond these peaks other mountains rise in
+majestic grandeur and bound the horizon in every direction.
+
+At the time that the ranch was located the Pass country was
+considered uninhabitable because of the scarcity of water and the
+presence of hostile Indians.  No permanent spring nor stream of
+water was known to exist in that whole region, but fine gramma
+grass grew everywhere.  Its suitability as a cattle range was
+recognized and caused it to be thoroughly prospected for water,
+which resulted in the discovery of several hidden springs.  All
+of the springs found, but one, were insignificant and either soon
+went dry or fluctuated with the seasons; but the big spring,
+known as Pinaleno, was worth finding, and flows a constant stream
+of pure, soft water that fills a four-inch iron pipe.
+
+When the spring was discovered not a drop of water was visible
+upon the surface, and a patch of willows was the only indication
+of concealed moisture.  By sinking a shallow well only a few feet
+deep among the willows, water was struck as it flowed through
+coarse gravel over a buried ledge of rock that forced the water
+up nearly to the surface only to sink again in the sand without
+being seen.  A ditch was dug to the well from below and an iron
+pipe laid in the trench, through which the water is conducted
+into a reservoir that supplies the water troughs.
+
+Again, when the ranch was opened the Indians were bad in the
+vicinity and had been actively hostile for some time.  The ranch
+is on a part of the old Chiricahua reservation that was once the
+home and hunting grounds of the tribe of Chiricahua Apaches, the
+most bold and warlike of all the southwest Indians.  Cochise was
+their greatest warrior, but he was only one among many able
+Apache chieftains.  He was at one time the friend of the white
+man, but treachery aroused his hatred and caused him to seek
+revenge on every white man that crossed his path.
+
+His favorite haunt was Apache Pass, a convenient spot that was
+favorable for concealment, where he lay in wait for weary
+travelers who passed that way in search of water and a pleasant
+camp ground.  If attacked by a superior force, as sometimes
+happened, he invariably retreated across the Sulphur Spring
+valley into his stronghold in the Dragoon mountains.
+
+Because of the many atrocities that were committed by the
+Indians, white men were afraid to go into that country to settle.
+Even as late as in the early eighties when that prince of
+rascals, the wily Geronimo, made his bloody raids through
+southern Arizona, the men who did venture in and located ranch
+and mining claims, lived in daily peril of their lives which, in
+not a few instances, were paid as a forfeit to their daring.
+
+The Butterfield stage and all other overland travel to California
+by the southern route before the railroads were built, went
+through Apache Pass.  Although it was the worst Indian infested
+section in the southwest, travelers chose that dangerous route in
+preference to any other for the sake of the water that they knew
+could always be found there.
+
+The reputation of Apache Pass, finally became so notoriously
+bad because of the many murders committed that the Government,
+late in the sixties, built and garrisoned Ft. Bowie for the
+protection of travelers and settlers.  The troops stationed at
+the post endured much hardship and fought many bloody battles
+before the Indians were conquered.  Many soldiers were killed and
+buried in a little graveyard near the fort.  When the fort was
+abandoned a few years ago, their bodies were disinterred and
+removed to the National cemetery at Washington.
+
+Railroad Pass is naturally a better wagon road than Apache Pass,
+but is without water.  It was named by Lieut. J. G. Parke in 1855
+while engaged in surveying for the Pacific Railroad, because of
+its easy grade and facility for railroad construction.
+
+I timed my visit to correspond with the arrival at Bowie station
+on the Southern Pacific Railroad, of a consignment of ranch goods
+that had been shipped from St. Louis.  I was met at the depot by
+the ranch force, who immediately proceeded to initiate me as a
+tenderfoot.  I inquired of one of the cowboys how far it was to a
+near-by mountain.  He gave a quien sabe shrug of the shoulder and
+answered me in Yankee fashion by asking how far I thought it was.
+Estimating the distance as in a prairie country I replied, "Oh,
+about a mile."  He laughed and said that the mountain was fully
+five miles distant by actual measurement.  I had unwittingly
+taken my first lesson in plainscraft and prudently refrained
+thereafter from making another sure guess.
+
+The deception was due to the rarefied atmosphere, which is
+peculiar to the arid region.  It not only deceives the eye as to
+distance, but also as to motion.  If the eye is steadily fixed
+upon some distant inanimate object, it seems to move in the
+tremulous light as if possessed of life, and it is not always
+easy to be convinced to the contrary.  However, by putting the
+object under inspection in line with some further object, it can
+readily be determined whether the object is animate or still by
+its remaining on or moving off the line.
+
+Another peculiarity of the country is that objects do not always
+seem to stand square with the world.  In approaching a mountain
+and moving on an up grade the plane of incline is suddenly
+reversed and gives the appearance and sensation of going
+downhill.  In some inexplicable manner sense and reason seem to
+conflict and the discovery of the disturbed relation of things is
+startling.  You know very well that the mountain ahead is above
+you, but it has the appearance of standing below you in a hollow;
+and the water in the brook at your feet, which runs down the
+mountain into the valley, seems to be running uphill.  By turning
+squarely about and looking backwards, the misplaced objects
+become righted, and produces much the same sensation that a man
+feels who is lost and suddenly finds himself again.
+
+We immediately prepared to drive out to the ranch, which was ten
+miles distant and reached by a road that skirted the Dos Cabezas
+mountains.  The new wagon was set up and put in running order and
+lightly loaded with supplies.  All of the preliminaries being
+completed, the horses were harnessed and hooked to the wagon.
+The driver mounted his seat, drew rein and cracked his whip, but
+we didn't go.  The horses were only accustomed to the saddle and
+knew nothing about pulling in harness.  Sam was a condemned
+cavalry horse and Box was a native bronco, and being hitched to a
+wagon was a new experience to both.  The start was unpropitious,
+but, acting on the old adage that "necessity is the mother of
+invention," which truth is nowhere better exemplified than on the
+frontier where conveniences are few and the most must be made of
+everything, after some delay and considerable maneuvering we
+finally got started.
+
+The road for some distance out was level and smooth and our
+progress satisfactory.  As we drove leisurely along I improved
+the opportunity to look about and see the sights.  It was a
+perfect day in April and there never was a brighter sky nor
+balmier air than beamed and breathed upon us.  The air was soft
+and tremulous with a magical light that produced startling
+phantasmagoric effects.
+
+It was my first sight of a mirage and it naturally excited my
+curiosity.  It seemed as if a forest had suddenly sprung up
+in the San Simon valley where just before had appeared only bare
+ground.  With every change in the angle of vision as we journeyed
+on, there occurred a corresponding change in the scene before us
+that produced a charming kaleidoscopic effect.  The rough
+mountain was transformed into a symmetrical city and the dry
+valley into a lake of sparkling water,--all seeming to be the
+work of magic in some fairyland of enchantment.
+
+In a ledge of granite rock by the wayside were cut a number of
+round holes which the Indians had made and used as mills for
+grinding their corn and seeds into meal.  Nearby also, were some
+mescal pits used for baking the agave, a native plant that is in
+great demand as food by the Indians.  The spot was evidently an
+old rendezvous where the marauding Apaches were accustomed to
+meet in council to plan their bloody raids, and to feast on
+mescal and pinole in honor of some successful foray or victory
+over an enemy.
+
+We next crossed several well-worn Indian trails which the Apaches
+had made by many years of travel to and fro between their
+rancherias in the Mogollon mountains and Mexico.  The sight of
+these trails brought us back to real life and a conscious sense
+of danger, for were we not in an enemy's country and in the midst
+of hostile Indians?  Nearly every mile of road traveled had been
+at some time in the past the scene of a bloody tragedy enacted by
+a savage foe.  Even at that very time the Apaches were out on the
+warpath murdering people, but fortunately we did not meet them
+and escaped unmolested.
+
+The road now crossed a low hill, which was the signal for more
+trouble.  The team started bravely up the incline, but soon
+stopped and then balked and all urging with whip and voice failed
+to make any impression.  After several ineffectual attempts to
+proceed it was decided not to waste any more time in futile
+efforts.  The horses were unhitched and the wagon partly
+unloaded, when all hands by a united pull and push succeeded in
+getting the wagon up the hill.  After reloading no difficulty was
+experienced in making a fresh start on a down grade, but a little
+farther on a second and larger hill was encountered, when the
+failure to scale its summit was even greater than the first.   No
+amount of coaxing or urging budged the horses an inch.  They
+simply were stubborn and would not pull.
+
+Night was approaching and camp was yet some distance ahead.  The
+driver suggested that the best thing to do under the
+circumstances was for the rest of us to take the led horses and
+ride on to camp, while he would remain with the wagon and, if
+necessary, camp out all night.  We reluctantly took his advice,
+mounted our horses and finished our journey in the twilight.
+Aaron, who was housekeeper at the ranch, gave us a hearty welcome
+and invited us to sit down to a bountiful supper which he had
+prepared in anticipation of our coming.  Feeling weary after our
+ride we retired early and were soon sound asleep.  The only
+thing that disturbed our slumbers during the night was a coyote
+concert which, as a "concord of sweet sounds was a dismal
+failure" but as a medley of discordant sounds was a decided
+success.  The bark of the coyote is particularly shrill and sharp
+and a single coyote when in full cry sounds like a chorus of
+howling curs.
+
+We were all up and out early the next morning to witness the
+birth of a new day.  The sunrise was glorious, and bright
+colors in many hues flashed across the sky.  The valley echoed
+with the cheerful notes of the mocking bird and the soft air was
+filled with the fragrance of wild flowers.  The scene was grandly
+inspiring and sent a thrill of pleasure through every nerve.
+
+While thus absorbed by the beauties of nature we heard an halloo,
+and looking down the road in the direction of the driver's
+bivouac we saw him coming swinging his hat in the air and driving
+at a rapid pace that soon brought him to the ranch house.  In
+answer to our inquiries as to how he had spent the night he
+reported that the horses stood quietly in their tracks all night
+long, while he slept comfortably in the wagon.  In the morning
+the horses started without undue urging as if tired of  inaction
+and glad to go in the direction of provender.  They were
+completely broken by their fast and after that gave no further
+trouble.
+
+After a stay of four weeks, learning something of the ways of
+ranch life and experiencing not a few exciting adventures,
+I returned home feeling well pleased with my first trip to the
+ranch.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+THE OPEN RANGE
+
+Arizona is in the arid belt and well adapted to the range cattle
+industry.  Its mild climate and limited water supply make it the
+ideal range country.  Indeed, to the single factor of its limited
+water supply, perhaps, more than anything else is its value due
+as an open range.  If water was abundant there could be no open
+range as then the land would all be farmed and fenced.
+
+Arizona is sometimes spoken of as belonging to the plains, but it
+is not a prairie country.  Mountains are everywhere, but are
+separated in many places by wide valleys.  The mountains not only
+make fine scenery, but are natural boundaries for the ranches and
+give shade and shelter to the cattle.
+
+There are no severe storms nor blizzard swept plains where cattle
+drift and perish from cold.  The weather is never extremely cold,
+the mercury seldom falling to more than a few degrees below
+freezing, except upon the high plateaus and mountains of northern
+Arizona.  If it freezes during the night the frost usually
+disappears the next day; and, if snow flies, it lies only on the
+mountains, but melts as fast as it falls in the valleys.  There
+are but few cloudy or stormy days in the year and bright, warm
+sunshine generally prevails.  There has never been any loss of
+cattle from cold, but many have died from drought as a result of
+overstocking the range.
+
+The pastures consist of valley, mesa and mountain lands which, in
+a normal season, are covered by a variety of nutritious grasses.
+Of all the native forage plants the gramma grass is the most
+abundant and best.  It grows only in the summer rainy season
+when, if the rains are copious, the gray desert is converted into
+a vast green meadow.
+
+The annual rainfall is comparatively light and insufficient to
+grow and mature with certainty any of the cereal crops.  When the
+summer rains begin to fall the rancher is "jubilant" and the "old
+cow smiles."  Rain means even more to the ranchman than it does
+to the farmer.  In an agricultural country it is expected that
+rain or snow will fall during every month of the year, but on the
+range rain is expected only in certain months and, if it fails to
+fall then, it means failure, in a measure, for the entire year.
+
+Rain is very uncertain in Arizona.  July and August are the rain
+months during which time the gramma grass grows.  Unless the rain
+falls daily after it begins it does but little good, as frequent
+showers are required to keep the grass growing after it once
+starts.  A settled rain of one or more days' duration is of rare
+occurrence.  During the rainy season and, in fact, at all times,
+the mornings are usually clear.  In the forenoon the clouds begin
+to gather and pile up in dark billowy masses that end in showers
+during the afternoon and evening.  But not every rain cloud
+brings rain.  Clouds of this character often look very
+threatening, but all their display of thunder and lightning is
+only bluff and bluster and ends in a fizzle with no rain.  After
+such a demonstration the clouds either bring wind and a
+disagreeable dust storm, or, if a little rain starts to fall, the
+air is so dry that it evaporates in mid air, and none of it ever
+reaches the earth.  In this fashion the clouds often threaten to
+do great things, only to break their promise; and the anxious
+rancher stands and gazes at the sky with longing eyes, only to be
+disappointed again and again.
+
+As a rule water is scarce.  A long procession of cloudless days
+merge into weeks of dry weather; and the weeks glide into months
+during which time the brazen sky refuses to yield one drop of
+moisture either of dew or rain to the parched and thirsty earth.
+Even the rainy season is not altogether reliable, but varies
+considerably one year with another in the time of its appearance
+and continuance.
+
+The soil is sandy and porous and readily absorbs water, except
+where the earth is tramped and packed hard by the cattle. One
+peculiarity of the country as found marked upon the maps, and
+that exists in fact, is the diminution and often complete
+disappearance of a stream after it leaves the mountains.  If not
+wholly lost upon entering the valley the water soon sinks out of
+sight in the sand and disappears and reappears at irregular
+intervals, until it loses itself entirely in some underground
+channel and is seen no more.
+
+Many a pleasant valley in the range country is made desolate by
+being destitute of any surface spring or running brook, or water
+that can be found at any depth.  Occasionally a hidden fountain
+is struck by digging, but it is only by the merest chance.  Wells
+have been dug to great depths in perfectly dry ground in an eager
+search for water without finding it, and such an experience is
+usually equivalent to a failure and the making of a useless bill
+of expense.
+
+A never-failing spring of good water in sufficient quantity to
+supply the needs of a ranch in the range country is of rare
+occurrence, considering the large territory to be supplied.  Only
+here and there at long intervals is such a spring found, and it
+is always a desirable and valuable property.  It makes an oasis
+in the desert that is an agreeable change from the surrounding
+barrenness, and furnishes its owner, if properly utilized, a
+comfortable subsistence for himself and herds.  His fields
+produce without fail and the increase of his flocks and herds is
+sure.
+
+The isolated rancher who is well located is independent.  He is
+in no danger of being crowded by his neighbors nor his range
+becoming over stocked with stray cattle.  His water right gives
+him undisputed control of the adjacent range, even though he does
+not own all the land, which is an unwritten law of the range and
+respected by all cattlemen.
+
+Because of the scarcity of water the range country is sparsely
+settled and always will be until more water is provided by
+artificial means for irrigation.  Even then a large portion of
+the land will be worthless for any other purpose than grazing,
+and stock-growing on the open range in Arizona will continue to
+be a staple industry in the future as it has been in the past.
+
+The range is practically all occupied and, in many places, is
+already over stocked.  Where more cattle are run on a range than
+its grass and water can support there is bound to be some loss.
+In stocking a range an estimate should be made of its carrying
+capacity in a bad year rather than in a good one, as no range can
+safely carry more cattle than it can support in the poorest year;
+like a chain, it is no stronger than its weakest link.
+
+A good range is sometimes destroyed by the prairie dog.  Wherever
+he establishes a colony the grass soon disappears.  He burrows in
+the ground and a group of such holes is called a dog town.  Like
+the jack-rabbit he can live without water and is thus able to
+keep his hold on the desert.  The only way to get rid of him is
+to kill him, which is usually done by the wholesale with poison.
+His flesh is fine eating, which the Navajo knows if the white man
+does not.  The Navajo considers him a dainty morsel which is
+particularly relished by the sick.  If a patient can afford the
+price, he can usually procure a prairie dog in exchange for two
+sheep.
+
+The Navajo is an adept at capturing this little animal.  The
+hunter places a small looking-glass near the hole and, in
+concealment near by, he patiently awaits developments.
+When the prairie dog comes out of his hole to take an airing
+he immediately sees his reflection in the glass and takes it
+
+
+
+for an intruder. In an instant he is ready for a fight and
+pounces upon his supposed enemy to kill or drive him away.
+While the prairie dog is thus engaged wrestling with his
+shadow or reflection the hunter shoots him at close range with
+his bow and arrow--never with a gun, for if wounded by a
+bullet he is sure to drop into his hole and is lost, but the
+arrow transfixes his body and prevents him from getting away.
+He has been hunted so much in the Navajo country that he has
+become very scarce.[1]
+
+[1] This statement is made on the authority of Mr. F. W. Volz,
+who lives at Canon Diablo, and is familiar with the customs of
+the Navajos.
+
+
+Much of the ranch country in southern Arizona is destitute of
+trees, and shade, therefore, is scarce.   Upon the high mountains
+and plateaus of northern Arizona there are great forests of pine
+and plenty of shade.  But few cattle range there in comparison to
+the large numbers that graze on the lower levels further south.
+What little tree growth there is on the desert is stunted and
+supplies but scant shade.  In the canons some large cottonwood,
+sycamore and walnut trees can be found; upon the foot hills the
+live oak and still higher up the mountain the pine.  Cattle
+always seek the shade and if there are no trees they will lie
+down in the shade of a bush or anything that casts a shadow.  The
+cattle are so eager for shade that if they can find nothing
+better they will crowd into the narrow ribbon of shade that is
+cast by a columnar cactus or telegraph pole and seem to be
+satisfied with ever so little if only shade is touched.
+
+Twenty years ago before there were many cattle on the
+southwestern range, the gramma grass stood knee high everywhere
+all over that country and seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of
+feed for an unlimited number of cattle during an indefinite term
+of years.  It was not many years, however, after the large herds
+were turned loose on the range until the grass was all gone and
+the ground, except in a few favored spots, left nearly as bare of
+grass as the traveled road.  At the present time whatever grass
+there is must grow each year which, even in a favorable year, is
+never heavy.  If the summer rains fail, no grass whatever can
+grow and the cattle are without feed.  The grass about the
+springs and water holes is first to disappear and then the cattle
+must go farther and farther from water to find any grass.  When
+cattle are compelled to travel over long distances in going from
+grass to water, they naturally grow thin from insufficient food
+and are worn out by the repeated long journeys.  A cow that is
+thin and weak will postpone making the trip as long as possible--
+two, three and even four days in the hottest weather she will
+wait before attempting the trip.  At last, when the poor creature
+reaches water, she is so famished from thirst that she drinks too
+much.  In her feeble condition she is unable to carry the
+enormous load of water which she drinks and lies down by the side
+of the friendly water trough to die from exhaustion.
+
+If cattle are turned loose upon a new range they act strange and
+are inclined to scatter.  Until they become accustomed to the
+change they should be close herded, but after they are once
+located they are not liable to stray very far.
+
+As they are only worked by men on horseback they are not
+frightened at the sight of a horse and rider; but let a stranger
+approach them on foot, in a moment after he is sighted every head
+is raised in surprise and alarm and the pedestrian is, indeed,
+fortunate if the herd turns tail and scampers off instead of
+running him down and tramping him under foot in a wild stampede.
+
+Nowhere else can be found a finer sight than is witnessed in the
+range country.  In every direction broad meadows stretch away to
+the horizon where numberless cattle roam and are the embodiment
+of bovine happiness and contentment.  Scattered about in
+irregular groups they are seen at ease lying down or feeding, and
+frisking about in an overflow of exuberant life.  Cow paths or
+trails converge from every point of the compass, that lead to
+springs and water holes, on which the cattle travel.
+
+It is an interesting sight to watch the cattle maneuver as they
+form in line, single file, ready for the march.  They move
+forward in an easy, deliberate walk one behind the other and may
+be seen coming and going in every direction.  They make their
+trips with great regularity back and forth from grass to water,
+and vice versa, going to water in the morning and back to the
+feeding grounds at night.
+
+Cows have a curious fashion, sometimes, of hiding out their
+calves.  When a cow with a young calf starts for water she
+invariably hides her calf in a bunch of grass or clump of bushes
+in some secluded spot, where it lies down and remains perfectly
+quiet until the mother returns.   I have many times while riding
+the range found calves thus secreted that could scarcely be
+aroused or frightened away, which behavior was so different from
+their usual habit of being shy and running off at the slightest
+provocation.  The calf under such circumstances seems to
+understand that it is "not at home," and cannot be seen.
+
+At another time a lot of calves are left in charge of a young cow
+or heifer that seems to understand her responsibility and guards
+her charge carefully.  The young calves are too weak to make the
+long trip to water and thus, through the maternal instinct of the
+mother cow, she provides for the care of her offspring almost as
+if she were human.
+
+After viewing such a large pasture as the open range presents,
+which is limitless in extent, the small fenced field or pasture
+lot of a few acres on the old home farm back east, that looked so
+large to boyish eyes in years gone by, dwindles by comparison
+into insignificance and can never again be restored to its former
+greatness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+RANCH LIFE
+
+Ranch life on the open range may be somewhat wild and lonely, but
+it is as free and independent to the rancher as it is to his
+unfettered cattle that roam at will over a thousand hills.  As a
+place of residence for a family of women and children it is
+undesirable because of its isolation and lack of social and
+educational privileges;  but for a man who cares to "rough it" it
+has a rare fascination.  Its freedom may mean lonesomeness and
+its independence monotony, yet it is very enjoyable for a season.
+Like anything else it may become wearing and wearisome if
+continued too long without a change, but its novelty has a charm
+that is irresistible.
+
+Ranch life is untrammeled by social conventionalities and is not
+burdened by business cares, but is an easy, natural life that is
+free from all kinds of pressure.  It relieves the tension of an
+artificial existence, and worry and vexation are forgotten.  Time
+loses its rapid flight and once more jogs on at an easy pace; and
+its complete isolation and quiet gives nature a chance to rest
+and recuperate
+
+       "Away from the dwellings of careworn men."
+
+The environment of ranch life is highly conducive to good health.
+The scenery is delightful, the air pure and bracing, the food
+wholesome and nutritious, the couch comfortable and the sleep
+refreshing.  Walking and riding furnish the necessary exercise
+that nature demands.  Indeed, there is no better exercise to be
+found than riding horseback to stimulate sluggish organs, or
+excite to healthy action the bodily functions.  It stirs the
+liver, causes deep breathing, strengthens the heart and
+circulation, tones the nerves and makes an appetite that waits on
+good digestion.  An outdoor life is often better than medicine
+and is a panacea for the "ills that human flesh is heir to."
+
+The ranchman, if he is in tune with his surroundings, finds a
+never-failing spring of pleasure.  If he is company for himself
+he is well entertained and if he is a lover of nature he finds
+interesting subjects for study upon every hand.  His wants are
+few and simple and the free life that he lives develops in him a
+strong and sturdy manhood.  He is the picture of health and is
+happy and contented as the day is long.
+
+However, such a life does not suit everyone, as individual tastes
+differ.  Prejudice also exerts an influence and is apt to
+estimate all western life as crude and undesirable, being in a
+transition state of change from savagery to civilization.  Be it
+even so; for, if the savage had never existed to furnish the
+ancestry that civilized man boasts, civilization would not have
+been possible.  It is only natural that this should be so as, in
+the order of nature, evolution begins at the bottom and works up.
+
+There is perhaps no condition in life that can be called perfect,
+yet of the two extremes we choose to believe that civilization is
+preferable to barbarism; but an intermediate state has the
+advantage over both extremes by avoiding native crudeness upon
+the one hand and excessive refinement upon the other, both being
+equally undesirable.
+
+Happiness, which we all profess to seek, exists in some degree
+everywhere but we are always striving to acquire something more.
+In our constant struggle for improvement, progress undoubtedly is
+made in the right direction.  With refinement comes increased
+sensibility and an enlarged capacity for enjoyment.  But, such a
+state in itself is not one of unalloyed bliss, as might be
+supposed, since it is marred by its antithesis, an increased
+amount of sickness and suffering, which is the inevitable penalty
+of civilization.  In such a progression the pleasures of life
+become more, but the acuteness of suffering is also increased.
+The mistake lies in the fact that in our eager pursuit after the
+artificial we forget nature and not until we acquire a surfeit of
+that which is artificial and grow weary of the shams and deceits
+of the world do we stop and think or turn again to nature to find
+the truth.
+
+In the early days the frontier was the rendezvous for rough and
+lawless characters of every description.  That time has gone by
+never to return in the history of the nation, as the rustlers
+have either reformed and become good citizens or long ago left
+the country by the lead or hemp routes.  The change in the times
+has been such that never again will it be possible to return to
+the conditions that existed in the early settlement of the west
+which gave to desperadoes a safe hiding place.
+
+The people now living on what is left of the frontier will, as a
+class, compare favorably with those of any other community.
+There may be small surface polish, as the world goes, but there
+is much genuine gold of true character that needs only a little
+rubbing to make it shine.
+
+The population being sparse there is comparatively little
+opportunity or inclination for wrongdoing.  Whatever anybody does
+is noticed at once and everything that happens is immediately
+found out.  The favorite haunt of vice and crime is not in a
+sparsely settled community, public opinion to the contrary
+notwithstanding, but in the centers of population, in, our large
+cities where temptation to do evil is strong and dark deeds find
+ready concealment in the mingling and confusion of the throng.
+
+The ranchman deserves to be correctly judged by his true
+character and not by any false standard that is artfully designed
+to misrepresent him or to unjustly bring him into contempt.  He
+may have a rough exterior, not intending to pose in a model
+fashion plate, but in real life where he is tried there is found
+under his coarse garb a heart that is honest and true which
+responds with sympathy and kindness for anyone in distress; and
+his generosity and hospitality are proverbial and stand without a
+rival.  Men from every position in life, including college
+graduates and professional men, are engaged in ranching and
+whoever takes them to be a lot of toughs and ignoramuses is
+egregiously mistaken.
+
+The strength, virtue and intelligence of the nation is found in
+its large middle class of laboring people that is largely
+composed of farmers and mechanics, men who work with their hands
+and live natural lives and are so busy in some useful occupation
+that they have no time to think of mischief.  In this favored
+land of freedom all of our great men have been of the common
+people and struggled up from some humble position.  A life of
+toil may seem to be hard, but it conforms to nature and natural
+laws and favors the development of the best that is in man; and
+he who shirks toil misses his opportunity.  Whatever tends to
+wean men from work only weakens them.  Luxury and indolence
+travel on the downward road of degeneracy.  They may make
+pleasant temporary indulgence, but are fatal to ultimate success.
+
+Locomotion on a ranch consists almost entirely of horseback
+riding as walking is too slow and tiresome and wheeled conveyance
+is often inconvenient or impossible for cross-country driving.
+When the ranchman mounts his horse in the morning to make his
+daily rounds he has a clear field before him.  He is "monarch of
+all he surveys" and practically owns the earth, since his
+neighbors live many miles away and his road leads in any
+direction clear to the horizon.
+
+The average ranch is not intended to furnish luxuries, but to
+serve the best interests of the business in hand, that of growing
+cattle.  It is usually a "stag camp" composed entirely of men who
+occupy a rude cabin near some convenient spring or stream of
+water, where they keep house in ranch style and live after a
+fashion.  No money is ever expended in unnecessary improvements,
+but every dollar spent in repairs is put where it will do the
+most good.  The house furnishings are all of the plainest kind
+and intended to meet only present necessities.  The larder is not
+supplied with luxuries nor is the cuisine prolific of dainties,
+but there is always on hand a supply of the necessaries of life.
+
+Every man has his particular work to perform, but unless it be on
+some large ranch where the force of men employed is sufficiently
+large to require the services of a chef, he is also expected to
+assist in keeping house.   It is an unwritten law of the ranch
+that everybody on the place must share in this work and if anyone
+shirks his duty he must either promptly mend his ways or else
+quit his job.  It is seldom, however, that this rule has to be
+enforced, as the necessities of the case require that every man
+shall be able to prepare a meal as he is liable to be left alone
+for days or weeks at a time when he must either cook or starve.
+
+The equipment of the cowboy is his horse and reata.  They are his
+constant companions and serve his every purpose.  His work
+includes much hard riding, which he greatly enjoys if no accident
+befalls him.  But dashing on in heedless speed while rounding up
+cattle he is ever liable to mishaps, as his horse, although sure
+footed, may at any time step into a prairie dogs' hole or stumble
+on a loose rock that is liable to throw both horse and rider to
+the ground in a heap.  He is, indeed, fortunate if he escapes
+unhurt, or only receives a few bruises and not a fractured bone
+or broken neck.
+
+His work consists in riding over the range and marking the
+condition of the cattle; line riding to prevent the stock from
+straying; looking after the springs and water holes and keeping
+them clean; branding calves, gathering steers for market and
+assisting in the general work of the round-up.  Every day has its
+duty and every season its particular work, yet there are times of
+considerable leisure during the year.  After his day's work is
+done he repairs to the ranch house, or to some outlying camp,
+whichever happens to be nearest when night overtakes him, for
+every large ranch has one or more such camps posted at some
+convenient point that furnishes temporary shelter and
+refreshment, where he rests and eats his frugal meal with a
+relish that only health and rough riding can give.
+
+If he is at the home ranch in winter he spends the long evenings
+before an open hearth fire of blazing logs and by the light of
+the fire and the doubtful aid of a tallow dip lounges the hours
+away in reading and cogitation; or, if in the company of
+congenial companions, engages in conversation and pleasantry or
+any amusement that the party may select.  At an early hour he
+turns in for the night and after a sound and refreshing sleep is
+up and out with the dawn.  After breakfast he mounts his horse
+and in his striking and characteristic costume of broad sombrero,
+blue flannel shirt, fringed chaperejos and jingling spurs he
+rides forth to his work a perfect type of the gallant caballero.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+THE ROUND-UP
+
+In the range cattle business it is important for every owner of
+live stock to have some mark by which he can tell his own cattle.
+It is impossible for any man to remember and recognize by natural
+marks every animal in a large herd.  On the open range there are
+no fenced pastures to hold the cattle, but all are permitted to
+run free and mix promiscuously.  To distinguish the cattle of
+different owners a system of earmarks and brands has been devised
+by which each ranchman can identify and claim his own stock.
+
+The branding is usually done during a round-up when every calf
+found is caught and branded in the brand of its mother.  If a
+calf remains unbranded until after it is weaned and quits its
+mother, it becomes a maverick and is liable to be lost to its
+owner.  A calf, if left to itself, will follow its mother for
+several months and then leave her to seek its own living.
+Occasionally a calf does not become weaned when it should be, but
+continues the baby habit indefinitely.  If a yearling is found
+unweaned it is caught and "blabbed" which is done by fitting a
+peculiarly shaped piece of wood into its nose that prevents it
+from sucking but does not interfere with feeding.
+
+If a calf loses its mother while very young it is called a
+"leppy."  Such an orphan calf is, indeed, a forlorn and forsaken
+little creature.  Having no one to care for it, it has a hard
+time to make a living.  If it is smart enough to share the lacteal
+ration of some more fortunate calf it does very well, but if it
+cannot do so and has to depend entirely on grazing for a living
+its life becomes precarious and is apt to be sacrificed in the
+"struggle for the survival of the fittest."
+
+If it survives the ordeal and lives it bears the same relation to
+the herd as the maverick and has no lawful owner until it is
+branded.  If an unbranded calf has left or lost its mother it has
+lost its identity as well and finds it again only after being
+branded, although it may have swapped owners in the process.
+Theoretically, a maverick belongs to the owner of the range on
+which it runs, but, practically, it becomes the property of the
+man who first finds and brands it.
+
+Although the branding is supposed to be done only during a
+round-up there is nevertheless some branding done in every month
+of the year.  The ranchman is compelled to do so to save his
+calves from being stolen.  Therefore early branding is generally
+practiced as it has been found to be the best safeguard against
+theft.  Either the spring or fall is considered a good time to
+brand, but the only best time to brand a calf is when you find
+it.
+
+Dishonest men are found in the cattle business the same as in
+other occupations and every year a large number of cattle are
+misappropriated and stolen from the range.   Cattle have been
+stolen by the wholesale and large herds run off and illegally
+sold before the owner discovered his loss.  Calf stealing,
+however, happens more frequently than the stealing of grown
+cattle and many ingenious devices have been invented to make such
+stealing a success.  A common practice is to "sleeper" a calf by
+a partial earmark and a shallow brand that only singes the hair
+but does not burn deep enough to leave a permanent scar.  If the
+calf is not discovered as an imperfect or irregular brand and
+becomes a maverick, it is kept under surveillance by the thief
+until he considers it safe to finish the job when he catches it
+again and brands it with his own iron.
+
+Different methods are employed to win a calf and fit it for
+unlawful branding.  Sometimes the calf is caught and staked out
+in some secluded spot where it is not liable to be found and away
+from its mother until it is nearly starved when it is branded by
+the thief and turned loose; or, the calf's tongue is split so
+that it cannot suck and by the time that the wounded tongue has
+healed the calf has lost its mother, and the thief brands it for
+himself.  Again, the mother cow is shot and killed, when the
+orphan calf is branded in perfect safety as "the dead tell no
+tales."
+
+The owner of cattle on the open range must be constantly on his
+guard against losses by theft.  Usually the thief is a dishonest
+neighbor or one of his own cowboys who becomes thrifty at his
+employer's expense.  Many a herd of cattle was begun without a
+single cow, but was started by branding surreptitiously other
+people's property.  It is not an easy matter to detect such a
+thief or to convict on evidence when he is arrested and brought
+to trial.  A cattle thief seldom works alone, but associates
+himself with others of his kind who will perjure themselves to
+swear each other clear.
+
+The cow ponies that are used in range work are small but active
+and possessed of great power of endurance.  They are the
+descendants of the horses that were brought into Mexico by the
+Spaniards, some of which escaped into the wilderness and their
+increase became the wild horses of the plains.  They are known by
+the various names of mustang, bronco and cayuse according to the
+local vernacular of the country in which they roam.  They are
+wild and hard to conquer and are sometimes never fully broken
+even under the severest treatment.  Bucking and pitching are
+their peculiar tricks for throwing a rider and such an experience
+invariably ends in discomfort if not discomfiture, for if the
+rider is not unhorsed he at least receives a severe shaking up
+in the saddle.
+
+The native cattle, like the horses, are small and wild, but are
+hardy and make good rustlers.  The native stock has been greatly
+improved in recent years by cross breeding with thoroughbred
+Durham and Hereford bulls.  Grade cattle are better suited for
+the open range than are pure bred animals, which are more tender
+and fare better in fenced pastures.  By cross breeding the
+quality of range cattle has steadily improved until the scrub
+element has been almost bred out.
+
+As a breeding ground Arizona is unsurpassed, but for maturing
+beef cattle the northern country is preferable.  Thousands of
+young cattle are shipped out annually to stock the ranges of
+Wyoming and Montana and to fill the feed lots of Kansas, Missouri
+and other feeding states.  A dash of native blood in range cattle
+is desirable as it enables them to endure hardships without
+injury and find subsistence in seasons of drought and scant
+forage.
+
+The general round-up occurs in the fall, just after the summer
+rains, when there is plenty of grass and the horses and cattle
+are in good condition.  The ranchmen of a neighborhood meet at an
+appointed time and place and organize for systematic work.  A
+captain is chosen who is in command of the round-up and must be
+obeyed.  Each cowboy has his own string of horses, but all of the
+horses of the round-up not in use are turned out to graze and
+herd together.  A mess wagon and team of horses in charge of a
+driver, who is also the cook, hauls the outfit of pots,
+provisions and bedding.
+
+ The round-up moves from ranch to ranch rounding up and marking
+the cattle as it goes and is out from four to six weeks,
+according to the number of ranches that are included in the
+circuit.
+
+When camp is made and everything ready for work the cowboys ride
+out in different directions and drive in all the cattle they can
+find.  After the cattle are all gathered the calves are branded
+and the cattle of the several owners are cut into separate herds
+and held until the round-up is finished when they are driven
+home.
+
+Every unbranded calf is caught and branded in its mother's brand.
+In a mix-up of cattle as occurs at a round-up, a calf sometimes
+gets separated from its mother so that when caught its identity
+is uncertain.  To avoid making a mistake the calf is only
+slightly marked, just enough to hurt it a little, and is then
+turned loose.  A calf when it is hurt is very much like a child,
+in that it cries and wants its mamma.  As quick as it is let go
+it immediately hunts its mother and never fails to find her.
+When cow and calf have come together the calf is again caught and
+the branding finished.
+
+The pain produced by the hot branding iron makes the calf bawl
+lustily and struggle to free itself.  The mother cow sometimes
+resents the punishment of her offspring by charging and chasing
+the men who are doing the branding; or, if she is of a less fiery
+disposition, shows her displeasure by a look of reproach as much
+as to say, "You bad men, what have you done to hurt my little
+darling?"
+
+A peculiarity of brands is that they do not all grow alike.
+Sometimes a brand, after it is healed, remains unchanged during
+the life of the animal.  At other times it enlarges to several
+times its original size.  Various reasons are assigned to account
+for this difference.  Some claim that the brand only grows with
+the calf; others assert that it is due to deep branding; and,
+again, it is ascribed to lunar influence.  But, as to the real
+cause of the difference, no explanation has been given that
+really explains the phenomenon.
+
+The cowboy's work is nearly all done in the saddle and calls for
+much hard riding.  He rides like a Centaur, but is clumsy on his
+feet.  Being so much in the saddle his walking muscles become
+weakened, and his legs pressing against the body of his horse, in
+time, makes him bowlegged.  In addition he wears high-heeled
+Mexican boots which throw him on his toes when he walks and makes
+his already shambling gait even more awkward.
+
+A cowboy's life has little in it to inspire him with high ideals
+or arouse his ambition to achieve greatness.  He leads a hard
+life among rough men and receives only coarse fare and rougher
+treatment.   His life is narrow and he works in a rut that
+prevents him from taking a broad view of life.  All that he has
+is his monthly wages, and, possibly, a hope that at some future
+day he may have a herd of cattle of his own.
+
+Managing a herd of range cattle successfully is an art that can
+only be acquired by long practice, and it is surprising how
+expert men can become at that business.  All the work done among
+cattle is on horseback, which includes herding, driving, cutting
+and roping.  The trained cow pony seemingly knows as much about a
+round-up as his master, and the two, together, form a combination
+that is invincible in a herd of wild cattle.  The cow or steer
+that is selected to be roped or cut out rarely escapes.  While
+the horse is in hot pursuit the rider dexterously whirls his
+reata above his head until, at a favorable moment, it leaves his
+hand, uncoiling as it flies through the air, and, if the throw is
+successful, the noose falls over the animal's head.  Suddenly the
+horse comes to a full stop and braces himself for the shock.
+When the animal caught reaches the end of the rope it is brought
+to an abrupt halt and tumbled in a heap on the ground.  The horse
+stands braced pulling on the rope which has been made fast to the
+horn of the saddle by a few skillful turns.  The cowboy is out of
+the saddle and on his feet in a jiffy.  He grasps the prostrate
+animal by the tail and a hind leg, throws it on its side, and
+ties its four feet together, so that it is helpless and ready for
+branding or inspection.  The cowboys have tying contests in which
+a steer is sometimes caught and tied in less time than a minute.
+
+It is a comical sight to see an unhorsed cowboy chase his runaway
+horse on foot as he is almost sure to do if caught in such a
+predicament.  He ought to know that he cannot outrun his fleet
+steed in such a race, but seems to be impelled by some strange
+impulse to make the attempt.  After he has run himself out of
+breath he is liable to realize the folly of his zeal and adopt a
+more sensible method for capturing his horse.
+
+The cowboy who works on the southwestern range has good cause to
+fear the malodorous hydrophobia skunk.  At a round-up all of the
+cowboys sleep on the ground.  During the night, while they are
+asleep, the little black and white cat-like animal forages
+through the camp for something to eat.  Without provocation the
+skunk will attack the sleeper and fasten its sharp teeth in some
+exposed portion of his anatomy, either the nose or a finger or
+toe and will not let go until it is killed or forcibly removed.
+The wound thus made usually heals quickly and the incident is,
+perhaps, soon forgotten; but after several weeks or months
+hydrophobia suddenly develops and proves fatal in a short time.
+
+The only known cure for the bite of the skunk is the Pasteur
+treatment and, since its discovery, as soon as anyone is bitten,
+he is immediately sent to the Pasteur Institute in Chicago for
+treatment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+RANCH HAPPENINGS
+
+Ranch life is often full of thrilling incidents and adventures.
+The cowboy in his travels about the country looking after cattle,
+hunting wild game or, in turn, being hunted by yet wilder
+Indians, finds plenty of novelty and excitement to break any
+fancied monotony which might be considered as belonging to ranch
+life.  In a number of visits to the range country during the past
+twenty years, the writer has had an opportunity to observe life
+on a ranch, and experience some of its exciting adventures.
+
+One day in the summer of 1891, Dave Drew, our foreman, Tedrow,
+one of the cowboys, and myself, made a trip into East Canon in
+the Dos Cabezas mountains, in search of some large unbranded
+calves which had been seen running there.  We rode leisurely
+along for some time and passed several small bunches of cattle
+without finding what we were looking for.  As we neared a bend in
+the canon, Dave, who rode in advance, saw some cattle lying in
+the shade of a grove of live oak trees.  Instantly he spurred his
+horse into a run and chased after the cattle at full speed, at
+the same time looking back and shouting that he saw two mavericks
+and for us to hurry up and help catch them.  It was a bad piece
+of ground to cover and we found it difficult to make progress or
+to even keep each other in sight.  Tedrow hurried up as fast as
+he could while I brought up the rear.
+
+In trying to get through in the direction that Dave had gone, we
+tried to make a short cut in order to gain time, but soon found
+our way completely blocked by immense boulders and dense thickets
+of cat-claw bushes, which is a variety of mesquite covered with
+strong, sharp, curved thorns.  We turned back to find a better
+road and after some time spent in hunting an opening we
+discovered a dim trail which soon led us into a natural park of
+level ground hidden among the foothills.  Here we found Dave who
+alone had caught and tied down both the calves and was preparing
+to start a fire to heat the branding irons.  What he had done
+seemed like magic and was entirely incomprehensible to an
+inexperienced tenderfoot.
+
+Dave explained afterwards that to be successful in such a race
+much depended on taking the cattle by surprise, and then by a
+quick, bold dash start them running up the mountain, when it was
+possible to overtake and rope them; but if once started to
+running down hill it was not only unsafe to follow on horseback
+but in any event the cattle were certain to escape.  Taking them
+by surprise seemed to bewilder them and before they could collect
+their scattered senses, so to speak, and scamper off, the work of
+capture was done.
+
+Another adventure, which did not end so fortunately for met
+happened in the fall of I 887 when the country was yet
+comparatively new to the cattle business.  I rode out one day in
+company with a cowboy to look after strays and, incidentally, to
+watch for any game that might chance to cross our path.  We rode
+through seemingly endless meadows of fine gramma grass and saw
+the sleek cattle feeding on plenty and enjoying perfect
+contentment.  Game, also, seemed to be abundant but very shy and
+as we were not particularly hunting that kind of stock, we
+forebore giving chase or firing at long range.
+
+After riding about among the hills back of the Pinaleno ranch and
+not finding anything we concluded to return home.  On starting
+back we separated and took different routes, going by two
+parallel ravines in order to cover more ground in our search.  I
+had not gone far until I found the cattle we were looking for
+going to water on the home trail.  Jogging on slowly after them
+and enjoying the beauty of the landscape, I unexpectedly caught a
+glimpse of a deer lying down under a mesquite tree on the brow of
+a distant hill.  I was in plain sight of the deer, which was
+either asleep or heedless of danger as it paid no attention
+whatever to my presence.
+
+Deer and antelope soon become accustomed to horses and cattle and
+often mix and feed familiarly with the stock grazing on the open
+range.  The deer did not change its position as I quietly rode by
+and out of sight behind the hill.  There I dismounted and stalked
+the quarry on foot, cautiously making my way up the side of the
+hill to a point where I would be within easy shooting distance.
+As I stood up to locate the deer it jumped to its feet and was
+ready to make off, but before it could start a shot from my
+Winchester put a bullet through its head, and it scarcely moved
+after it fell.  The deer was in good condition and replenished
+our depleted ranch larder with some choice venison steaks.  The
+head, also, was a fine one the horns being just out of velvet and
+each antler five pointed, was saved and mounted.
+
+The shot and my lusty halloo soon brought my cowboy friend to the
+spot.  Together we eviscerated the animal and prepared to pack it
+to camp on my horse.  As we were lifting it upon his back the
+bronco gave a vicious kick which hit me in the left knee and
+knocked me down.  The blow, though severe, glanced off so that no
+bone was broken.  What made the horse kick was a mystery as he
+was considered safe and had carried deer on other occasions.  But
+a bronco, like a mule, is never altogether reliable, particularly
+as to the action of its heels.  With some delay in getting
+started and in somewhat of a demoralized condition we mounted and
+rode home.
+
+Soon after the accident I had a chill which was followed by a
+fever and there was much pain and swelling in the knee that was
+hit.  A ranch house, if it happens to be a "stag camp" as ours
+was, is a cheerless place in which to be sick, but everything
+considered, I was fortunate in that it was not worse.  By the
+liberal use of hot water and such other simples as the place
+afforded I was soon better; but not until after several months'
+treatment at home did the injured knee fully recover its normal
+condition.
+
+The excitement of running cattle or hunting game on the open
+range in those days was mild in comparison to the panicky feeling
+which prevailed during every Indian outbreak.  The experience of
+many years had taught the people of Arizona what to expect at
+such a time and the utter diabolical wickedness of the Apaches
+when out on the warpath.  During the early eighties many such
+raids occurred which were accompanied by all the usual horrors of
+brutality and outrage of which the Apaches are capable.
+
+When it became known in the fall of 1885 that Geronimo was again
+off the reservation and out on another one of his bloody raids
+the people became panic-stricken.  Some left the Territory until
+such time when the Indian question would be settled and the
+Government could guarantee freedom from Indian depredations.
+Those who remained either fled to some near town or fort for
+protection, or prepared to defend themselves in their own homes
+as best they could.
+
+What else could the settlers in a new country do?  They had
+everything invested in either mines or cattle and could not
+afford to leave their property without making some effort to save
+it even if it had to be done at the risk of their own lives.
+They had no means of knowing when or where the stealthy Apaches
+would strike and could only wait for the time in uncertainty and
+suspense.  Many who were in this uncomfortable predicament
+managed to escape any harm, but others fell victims to savage
+hatred whose death knell was sounded in the crack of the deadly
+rifle.
+
+Some personal experiences may help to illustrate this feeling of
+panic, as I happened to be at the ranch during the time and know
+how it was myself.
+
+One day in the month of October, 1885, while Geronimo was making
+his raid through southern Arizona, my brother and I rode through
+Railroad Pass from Pinaleno ranch to the Lorentz Place, a
+distance of fifteen miles.   It was about four o'clock in the
+afternoon that we ascended to the top of a hill to take
+observations and see if anything was happening out of the
+ordinary.  We saw nothing unusual until we were about to leave
+when we noticed somewhat of a commotion on the old Willcox and
+Bowie wagon road which parallels the Southern Pacific track.  The
+distance was too great to see distinctly with the naked eye, but
+looking through our field glasses, which we always carried when
+out riding, we could plainly see three loaded wagons standing in
+the road.  The drivers had evidently unhitched their teams and,
+mounted upon the horses' backs, were riding furiously in a cloud
+of dust down the road towards Bowie.
+
+I asked the judge, who was a resident and supposed to be familiar
+with the customs of the country while I was only a tenderfoot,
+what their actions meant.  He admitted that he did not understand
+their conduct unless it was that they had concluded that they
+could not make Willcox on that day and were returning to some
+favorable camp ground which they had passed on their way up, to
+spend the night; but the manner of their going was certainly
+peculiar.  After watching them disappear down the road we rode on
+and reached our destination in safety.
+
+The incident was forgotten until a few days later when we were in
+Willcox a friend inquired what had become of the Indians which
+had lately been seen on our range.  We replied that we had not
+seen any Indians nor known of any that had been there.  He then
+related to us how only a few days before three freighters had
+seen two Indians ride upon a hill and halt.  The sight of Indians
+was enough and their only  care after that was to get away from
+them.  They quickly unhitched their horses from the wagons and
+rode ten miles to Bowie where they gave the alarm and spent the
+night.  The next morning, having heard nothing more from the
+Indians during the night, they took fresh courage and ventured to
+return to their wagons, which they found as they had left them
+unmolested, when they continued their journey.
+  When the freighters were asked why they did not stand off the
+Indians they said that they only had one gun and not knowing how
+many more redskins there might be decided that to retreat was the
+better part of valor.  It was my brother and I whom they had seen
+and mistaken for Indians.
+
+A few days after this event I had a similar scare of my own and
+after it was over I could sympathize with the poor, frightened
+freighters.  I was alone at the ranch house packing up and
+preparing to leave for home.  While thus occupied I chanced to go
+to the open door and looking out, to my dismay, I saw Indians.
+"My heart jumped into my mouth" and for a moment I felt that my
+time had surely come.  Two men were seen riding horseback over
+the foot hills followed by a pack animal.  As I stood watching
+them and took time to think, it occurred to me that I might be
+mistaken, and that the men were not Indians after all.  As they
+drew nearer I saw that they were dressed like white men and,
+therefore, could not be Indians; but my scare while it lasted was
+painfully real.  The men proved to be two neighboring ranchmen
+who were out looking for lost cattle.
+
+In this raid, the Apaches, after leaving their reservation in the
+White mountains, traveled south along the Arizona and New Mexico
+line, killing people as they went, until they reached Stein's
+Pass.  From there they turned west, crossed the San Simon valley
+and disappeared in the Chiricahua mountains.  When next seen they
+had crossed over the mountains and attacked Riggs' ranch in
+Pinery canon, where they wounded a woman, but were driven off.
+
+The next place that they visited was the Sulphur Spring ranch of
+the Chiricahua Cattle Company, where they stole a bunch of
+horses.  The cowboys at the ranch had received warning that there
+were Indians about and had brought in the horse herd from the
+range and locked them in the corral.  The Apaches came in the
+night and with their usual adroitness and cunning stole the
+corral empty.  The first intimation which the inmates had that
+the ranch had been robbed was when the cowboys went in the
+morning to get their horses they found them gone.
+
+From the Sulphur Spring ranch they crossed the Sulphur Spring
+valley in the direction of Cochise's stronghold in the Dragoon
+mountains.  Before reaching the mountains they passed Mike
+Noonan's ranch where they shot its owner, who was a lone rancher
+and had lived alone in the valley many years.  He was found dead
+in his door yard with a bullet hole in the back of his head.  He
+evidently did not know that the Indians were near and was
+seemingly unconscious of any danger when he was killed.
+
+The Indians were not seen again after entering the stronghold
+until they crossed the line into Mexico, where they were pursued
+by United States soldiers.  After a long, stern chase Geronimo
+surrendered himself and followers to General Miles, who brought
+them back to Arizona.  As prisoners they were all loaded into
+cars at Bowie and taken to Florida.  The general in command
+thought it best to take them clear out of the country in order to
+put an effectual stop to their marauding.  Later they were
+removed to the Indian Territory where they now live.
+
+The rest of the Apaches remain in Arizona and live on the San
+Carlos reservation on the Gila river where they are being
+inducted into civilization.  Since the disturbing element among
+them has been removed there has been no more trouble.  They seem
+to have settled down with a sincere purpose to learn the white
+man's way and are quiet and peaceable.  They are laborers,
+farmers and stockmen and are making rapid progress in their new
+life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+A MODEL RANCH
+
+Any one who has been in Arizona and failed to visit the Sierra
+Bonita ranch missed seeing a model ranch.  Henry C. Hooker, the
+owner of this splendid property, was born in New England and is a
+typical Yankee, who early emigrated west and has spent most of
+his life on the frontier.
+
+He went to Arizona at the close of the Civil War and engaged in
+contracting for the Government and furnishing supplies to the
+army.  It was before the days of railroads when all merchandise
+was hauled overland in wagons and cattle were driven through on
+foot.  He outfitted at points in Texas and on the Rio Grande and
+drove his cattle and wagons over hundreds of miles of desert
+road through a country that was infested by hostile Indians.
+
+Such a wild life was naturally full of adventures and involved
+much hardship and danger.  The venture, however, prospered and
+proved a financial success, notwithstanding some losses in men
+killed, wagons pillaged and cattle driven off and lost by bands
+of marauding Apaches.
+
+In his travels he saw the advantages that Arizona offered as a
+grazing country, which decided him to locate a ranch and engage
+in the range cattle business.
+
+The ranch derives its name from the Graham or Pinaleno mountains
+which the Indians called the Sierra Bonita because of the many
+beautiful wild flowers that grow there.  It is twenty miles north
+of Willcox, a thriving village on the Southern Pacific Railroad,
+and ten miles south of Ft. Grant, that nestles in a grove of
+cotton trees at the foot of Mt. Graham, the noblest mountain in
+southern Arizona.
+
+The Sierra Bonita ranch is situated in the famous Sulphur Spring
+valley in Cochise County, Arizona, which is, perhaps, the only
+all grass valley in the Territory.  The valley is about twenty
+miles wide and more than one hundred miles long and extends into
+Mexico.  Its waters drain in opposite directions, part flowing
+south into the Yaqui river, and part running north through the
+Aravaipa Canon into the Gila and Colorado rivers, all to meet and
+mingle again in the Gulf of California.
+
+Fine gramma grass covers the entire valley and an underground
+river furnishes an inexhaustible supply of good water.  In the
+early days of overland travel before the country was protected or
+any of its resources were known, immigrants, who were bound for
+California by the Southern route and ignorant of the near
+presence of water, nearly perished from thirst while crossing the
+valley.
+
+The water rises to within a few feet of the surface and, since
+its discovery, numerous wells have been dug and windmills and
+ranch houses dot the landscape in all directions; while thousands
+of cattle feed and fatten on the nutritious gramma grass.  Its
+altitude is about four thousand feet above the sea and the
+climate is exceptionally fine.
+
+The Sierra Bonita ranch is located on a natural cienega of moist
+land that has been considerably enlarged by artificial means.  In
+an average year the natural water supply of the ranch is
+sufficient for all purposes but, to guard against any possible
+shortage in a dry year, water is brought from the mountains in
+ditches that have been constructed at great labor and expense and
+is stored in reservoirs, to be used as needed for watering the
+cattle and irrigating the fields.  The effect of water upon the
+desert soil is almost magical and even though the rains fail and
+the earth be parched, on the moist land of the cienega the fields
+of waving grass and grain are perennially green.
+
+The owner has acquired by location and purchase, title to several
+thousand acres of land, that is all fenced and much of it highly
+cultivated.  It consists of a strip of land one mile wide and ten
+miles long, which is doubly valuable because of its
+productiveness and as the key that controls a fine open range.
+
+The original herd of cattle that pastured on the Sierra Bonita
+ranch thirty years ago was composed of native scrub stock from
+Texas and Sonora.  This undesirable stock was sold at the first
+opportunity, and the range re-stocked by an improved grade of
+Durham cattle.  The change was a long stride in the direction of
+improvement, but, later on, another change was made to Herefords,
+and during recent years only whitefaces have been bred upon the
+ranch.
+
+Col. Hooker has a strong personality, holds decided opinions and
+believes in progress and improvement.  He has spent much time and
+money in experimental work, and his success has demonstrated the
+wisdom of his course.  Just such men are needed in every new
+country to develop its resources and prove its worth.
+
+He saw that the primitive methods of ranching then in vogue must
+be improved, and began to prepare for the change which was
+coming.  What he predicted came to pass, and the days of large
+herds on the open range are numbered.
+
+Many of them have already been sold or divided up, and it is a
+question Of only a short time when the rest will meet the same
+fate.
+
+When this is done there may be no fewer cattle than there are now
+but they will be bunched in smaller herds and better cared for.
+Scrubs of any kind are always undesirable, since it has been
+proved that quality is more profitable than quantity.  A small
+herd is more easily handled, and there is less danger of loss
+from straying or stealing.
+
+The common method of running cattle on the open range is reckless
+and wasteful in the extreme and entirely inexcusable.  The cattle
+are simply turned loose to rustle for themselves.  No provision
+whatever is made for their welfare, except that they are given
+the freedom of the range to find water, if they can, and grass
+that often affords them only scant picking.
+
+Under the new regime the cattle are carefully fed and watered, if
+need be in a fenced enclosure, that not only gives the cattle
+humane treatment but also makes money for the owner.  The men are
+instructed to bring in every sick or weak animal found on the
+range and put it into a corral or pasture, where it is nursed
+back to life.  If an orphan calf is found that is in danger of
+starving it is picked up, carried home and fed.  On the average
+ranch foundlings and weaklings get no attention whatever, but are
+left in their misery to pine away and perish from neglect.  The
+profit of caring for the weak and sick animals on the Sierra
+Bonita ranch amounts to a large sum every year, which the owner
+thinks is worth saving.
+
+Another peculiarity of ranch life is that where there are
+hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of cows in a herd, not a single
+cow is milked, nor is a cup of milk or pound of butter ever seen
+upon the ranch table.  It is altogether different on Hooker's
+ranch.  There is a separate herd of milch cows in charge of a man
+whose duty it is to keep the table supplied with plenty of fresh
+milk and butter.  No milk ever goes to waste.  If there is a
+surplus it is fed to the calves, pigs and poultry.
+
+During the branding season the work of the round-up is all done
+in corrals instead of, as formerly, out upon the open range.
+Each calf after it is branded, if it is old and strong enough to
+wean, is taken from the cow and turned into a separate pasture.
+It prevents the weak mother cow from being dragged to death by a
+strong sucking calf and saves the pampered calf from dying of
+blackleg by a timely change of diet.
+
+Instead of classing the cattle out on the open range as is the
+usual custom, by an original system of corrals, gates and chutes
+the cattle are much more easily and quickly classified without
+any cruelty or injury inflicted upon either man or beast.
+Classing cattle at a round-up by the old method is a hard and
+often cruel process, that requires a small army of both men and
+horses and is always rough and severe on the men, horses and
+cattle.
+
+Besides the herds of sleek cattle, there are also horses galore,
+enough to do all of the work on the ranch as well as for pleasure
+riding and driving.  There is likewise a kennel of fine
+greyhounds that are the Colonel's special pride.  His cattle,
+horses and dogs are all of the best, as he believes in
+thoroughbreds and has no use whatever for scrubs of either the
+human or brute kind.
+
+The dogs are fond of their master and lavish their caresses on
+him with almost human affection.  In the morning when they meet
+him at the door Ketchum pokes his nose into one of his master's
+half open hands and Killum performs the same act with the other
+hand.  Blackie nips him playfully on the leg while Dash and the
+rest of the pack race about like mad, trying to express the
+exuberance of their joy.
+
+In the bunch is little Bob, the fox terrier, who tries hard but
+is not always able to keep up with the hounds in a race.  He is
+active and gets over the ground lively for a small dog, but in a
+long chase is completely distanced and outclassed to his apparent
+disgust.  Aside from the fine sport that the dogs afford, they
+are useful in keeping the place clear of all kinds of "varmints"
+such as coyotes, skunks and wild cats.
+
+How much Col. Hooker appreciates his dogs is best illustrated by
+an incident.  One morning after greeting the dogs at the door, he
+was heard to remark sotto voce.
+
+"Well, if everybody on the ranch is cross, my dogs always greet
+me with a smile."
+
+There appears to be much in the dog as well as in the horse that
+is human, and the trio are capable of forming attachments for
+each other that only death can part.
+
+The ranch house is a one-story adobe structure built in the
+Spanish style of a rectangle, with all the doors opening upon a
+central court.  It is large and commodious, is elegantly
+furnished and supplied with every modern convenience.  It affords
+every needed comfort for a family and is in striking contrast
+with the common ranch house of the range that is minus every
+luxury and often barely furnishes the necessaries of life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+SOME DESERT PLANTS
+
+Much of the vegetation that is indigenous to the southwest is
+unique and can only be seen at its best in the Gila valley in
+southern Arizona.  The locality indicated is in the arid zone and
+is extremely hot and dry.  Under such conditions it is but
+natural to suppose that all plant life must necessarily be scant
+and dwarfed, but such is not the fact.  Upon the contrary many of
+the plants that are native to the soil and adapted to the climate
+grow luxuriantly, are remarkably succulent and perennially green.
+
+How they manage to acquire so much sap amidst the surrounding
+siccity is inexplicable, unless it is that they possess the
+function of absorbing and condensing moisture by an unusual and
+unknown method.  It is, however, a beneficent provision of nature
+as a protection against famine in a droughty land by furnishing
+in an acceptable form, refreshing juice and nutritious pulp to
+supply the pressing wants of hungry and thirsty man and beast in
+time of need.
+
+Another peculiarity of these plants is that they are acanaceous;
+covered all over with sharp thorns and needles.  Spikes of all
+sorts and sizes bristle everywhere and admonish the tenderfoot to
+beware.  Guarded by an impenetrable armor of prickly mail they
+defy encroachment and successfully repel all attempts at undue
+familiarity.  To be torn by a cat-claw thorn or impaled on a
+stout dagger leaf of one of these plants would not only mean
+painful laceration but, perhaps, serious or even fatal injury.
+Notwithstanding their formidable and forbidding appearance they
+are nevertheless attractive and possess some value either
+medicinal, commercial or ornamental.
+
+The maguey, or American aloe, is the most abundant and widely
+distributed of the native plants.  It is commonly known as
+mescal, but is also called the century plant from a mistaken
+notion that it blossoms only once in a hundred years.  Its
+average life, under normal conditions, is about ten years and it
+dies immediately after blossoming.
+
+It attains its greatest perfection in the interior of Mexico
+where it is extensively cultivated.  It yields a large quantity
+of sap which is, by a simple process of fermentation, converted
+into a liquor called pulque that tastes best while it is new and
+is consumed in large quantities by the populace.  Pulque trains
+are run daily from the mescal plantations, where the pulque is
+made, into the large cities to supply the bibulous inhabitants
+with their customary beverage.  In strength and effect it
+resembles lager beer, and is the popular drink with all classes
+throughout Mexico where it has been in vogue for centuries and is
+esteemed as "the only drink fit for thirsty angels and men."
+
+The agave is capable of being applied to many domestic uses.
+Under the old dispensation of Indian supremacy it supplied the
+natives their principal means of support.   Its sap was variously
+prepared and served as milk, honey, vinegar, beer and brandy.
+From its tough fiber were made thread, rope, cloth, shoes and
+paper.  The strong flower stalk was used in building houses and
+the broad leaves for covering them.
+
+The heart of the maguey is saccharine and rich in nutriment.  It
+is prepared by roasting it in a mescal pit and, when done, tastes
+much like baked squash.  It is highly prized by the Indians, who
+use it as their daily bread.  Before the Apaches were conquered
+and herded on reservations a mescal bake was an important event
+with them.  It meant the gathering of the clans and was made the
+occasion of much feasting and festivity.  Old mescal pits can yet
+be found in some of the secluded corners of the Apache country
+that were once the scenes of noisy activity, but have been
+forsaken and silent for many years.
+
+The fiery mescal, a distilled liquor that is known to the trade
+as aguardiente, or Mexican brandy, is much stronger than pulque,
+but less used.  Both liquors are said to be medicinal, and are
+reputed to possess diuretic, tonic and stimulant properties.
+
+Next in importance to the mescal comes the yucca.  There are
+several varieties, but the palm yucca is the most common, and
+under favorable conditions attains to the proportions of a tree.
+Fine specimens of yucca grow on the Mojave desert in California
+that are large and numerous enough to form a straggling forest.
+
+The tree consists of a light, spongy wood that grows as a single
+stem or divides into two or more branches.  Each branch is
+crowned by a tuft of long, pointed leaves that grow in concentric
+circles.  As the new leaves unfold on top the old leaves are
+crowded down and hang in loose folds about the stem like a
+flounced skirt.  When dry the leaves burn readily, and are
+sometimes used for light and heat by lost or belated travelers.
+White threads of a finer fiber are detached from the margins of
+the leaves that are blown by the wind into a fluffy fleece, in
+which the little birds love to nest.
+
+A grove of yucca trees presents a grotesque appearance.  If
+indistinctly viewed in the hazy distance they are easily mistaken
+for the plumed topknots of a band of prowling Apaches,
+particularly if the imagination is active with the fear of an
+Indian outbreak.
+
+The wood of the yucca tree has a commercial value.  It is cut
+into thin sheets by machinery which are used for surgeon's
+splints, hygienic insoles, tree protectors and calendars.  As a
+splint it answers an admirable purpose, being both light and
+strong and capable of being molded into any shape desired after
+it has been immersed in hot water.  Its pulp, also, makes an
+excellent paper.
+
+Another variety of yucca is the amole, or soap plant.  Owing to
+the peculiar shape of its leaves it is also called Spanish
+bayonet.  Its root is saponaceous, and is pounded into a pulp and
+used instead of soap by the natives.  It grows a bunch of large
+white flowers, and matures an edible fruit that resembles the
+banana.  The Indians call it oosa, and eat it, either raw or
+roasted in hot ashes.
+
+A species of yucca called sotal, or saw-grass, grows plentifully
+in places, and is sometimes used as food for cattle when grass is
+scarce.  In its natural state it is inaccessible to cattle
+because of its hard and thorny exterior.  To make it available it
+is cut down and quartered with a hoe, when the hungry cattle eat
+it with avidity.  Where the plant grows thickly one man can cut
+enough in one day to feed several hundred head of cattle.
+
+There are several other varieties of yucca that possess no
+particular value, but all are handsome bloomers, and the mass of
+white flowers which unfold during the season of efflorescence
+adds much to the beauty of the landscape.
+
+The prickly pear cactus, or Indian fig, of the genus Opuntia is a
+common as well as a numerous family.  The soil and climate of the
+southwest from Texas to California seem to be just to its liking.
+It grows rank and often forms dense thickets.  The root is a
+tough wood from which, it is said, the best Mexican saddletrees
+are made.
+
+The plant consists of an aggregation of thick, flat, oval leaves,
+which are joined together by narrow bands of woody fiber and
+covered with bundles of fine, sharp needles.  Its pulp is
+nutritious and cattle like the young leaves, but will not eat
+them after they become old and hard unless driven to do so by the
+pangs of hunger.  In Texas the plant is gathered in large
+quantities and ground into a fine pulp by machinery which is then
+mixed with cotton-seed meal and fed to cattle.  The mixture makes
+a valuable fattening ration and is used for finishing beef steers
+for the market.
+
+The cholla, or cane cactus, is also a species of Opuntia, but its
+stem or leaf is long and round instead of short and flat. It is
+thickly covered with long, fine, silvery-white needles that
+glisten in the sun.  Its stem is hollow and filled with a white
+pith like the elder.  After the prickly bark is stripped off the
+punk can be picked out through the fenestra with a penknife,
+which occupation affords pleasant pastime for a leisure hour.
+When thus furbished up the unsightly club becomes an elegant
+walking stick.
+
+The cholla is not a pleasant companion as all persons know who
+have had any experience with it.  Its needles are not only very
+sharp, but also finely barbed, and they penetrate and cling fast
+like a burr the moment that they are touched.  Cowboys profess to
+believe that the plant has some kind of sense as they say that it
+jumps and takes hold of its victim before it is touched.  This
+action, however, is only true in the seeming, as its long
+transparent needles, being invisible, are touched before they are
+seen.  When they catch hold of a moving object, be it horse or
+cowboy, an impulse is imparted to the plant that makes it seem to
+jump.  It is an uncanny movement and is something more than an
+ocular illusion, as the victim is ready to testify.
+
+These desert plants do not ordinarily furnish forage for live
+stock, but in a season of drought when other feed is scarce and
+cattle are starving they will risk having their mouths pricked by
+thorns in order to get something to eat and will browse on
+mescal, yucca and cactus and find some nourishment in the unusual
+diet, enough, at least, to keep them from dying.  The plants
+mentioned are not nearly as plentiful now as they once were.
+Because of the prolonged droughts that prevail in the range
+country and the overstocking of the range these plants are in
+danger of being exterminated and, if the conditions do not soon
+change, of becoming extinct.
+
+The saguaro, or giant cactus, is one of nature's rare and curious
+productions.  It is a large, round, fluted column that is from
+one to two feet thick and sometimes sixty feet high.  The trunk
+is nearly of an even thickness from top to bottom but, if there
+is any difference, it is a trifle thicker in the middle.  It
+usually stands alone as a single perpendicular column, but is
+also found bunched in groups.  If it has any branches they are
+apt to start at right angles from about the middle of the tree
+and curve upward, paralleling the trunk, which form gives it the
+appearance of a mammoth candelabrum.
+
+The single saguaro pillar bears a striking resemblance to a
+Corinthian column.  As everything in art is an attempt to imitate
+something in nature, is it possible that Grecian architecture
+borrowed its notable pattern from the Gila valley?
+
+Southern Arizona is the natural home and exclusive habitat of
+this most singular and interesting plant and is, perhaps, the
+only thing growing anywhere that could have suggested the design.
+Wherever it grows, it is a conspicuous object on the landscape
+and has been appropriately named "The Sentinel of the Desert."
+
+Its mammoth body is supported by a skeleton of wooden ribs, which
+are held in position by a mesh of tough fibers that is filled
+with a green pulp.  Rows of thorns extend its entire length which
+are resinous and, if ignited, burn with a bright flame.  They are
+sometimes set on fire and have been used by the Apaches for
+making signals.  The cactus tree, like the eastern forest tree,
+is often found bored full of round, holes that are made by the
+Gila woodpecker.  When the tree dies its pulp dries up and blows
+away and there remains standing only a spectral figure composed
+of white slats and fiber that looks ghostly in the distance.
+
+Its fruit is delicious and has the flavor of the fig and
+strawberry combined.  It is dislodged by the greedy birds which
+feed on it and by arrows shot from bows in the hands of the
+Indians.  The natives esteem the fruit as a great delicacy, and
+use it both fresh and dried and in the form of a treacle or
+preserve.
+
+The ocotillo, or mountain cactus, is a handsome shrub that grows
+in rocky soil upon the foothills and consists of a cluster of
+nearly straight poles of brittle wood covered with thorns and
+leaves.  It blossoms during the early summer and each branch
+bears on its crest a bunch of bright crimson flowers.
+
+If set in a row the plant makes an ornamental hedge and effective
+fence for turning stock.  The seemingly dry sticks are thrust
+into yet drier ground where they take root and grow without
+water.   Its bark is resinous and a fagot of dry sticks makes a
+torch that is equal to a pineknot.
+
+The echinocactus, or bisnaga, is also called "The Well of the
+Desert."  It has a large barrel-shaped body which is covered with
+long spikes that are curved like fishhooks.  It is full of sap
+that is sometimes used to quench thirst.  By cutting off the top
+and scooping out a hollow, the cup-shaped hole soon fills with a
+sap that is not exactly nectar but can be drunk in an emergency.
+Men who have been in danger of perishing from thirst on the
+desert have sometimes been saved by this unique method of well
+digging.
+
+Greasewood, or creasote bush as it is sometimes called on account
+of its pungent odor, grows freely on the desert, but has little
+or no value and cattle will not touch it.  Like many other desert
+plants it is resinous and if thrown into the fire, the green
+leaves spit and sputter while they burn like hot grease in a
+frying pan.
+
+The mesquite tree is peculiarly adapted to the desert and is the
+most valuable tree that grows in the southwest.  As found growing
+on the dry mesas of Arizona, it is only a small bush, but on the
+moist land of a river bottom it becomes a large forest tree.  A
+mesquite forest stands in the Santa Cruz valley south of Tucson
+that is a fair sample of its growth under favorable conditions.
+
+Its wood is hard and fine grained and polishes beautifully.  It
+is very durable and is valuable for lumber, fence posts and
+firewood.  On the dry mesas it seems to go mostly to root that is
+out of all proportion to the size of the tree.  The amount of
+firewood that is sometimes obtained by digging up the root of a
+small mesquite bush is astonishing.
+
+It makes a handsome and ornamental shade tree, having graceful
+branches, feathery leaves and fragrant flowers, and could be
+cultivated to advantage for yard and park purposes.
+
+Its principal value, however, lies in its seed pods, which grow
+in clusters and look like string beans.  The mesquite bean
+furnishes a superior article of food and feeds about everything
+that either walks or flies on the desert.  The Indians make meal
+of the seed and bake it into bread.  Cattle that feed on the open
+range will leave good grass to browse on a mesquite bush.  Even
+as carnivorous a creature as the coyote will make a full meal on
+a mess of mesquite beans and seem to be satisfied.  The tree
+exudes a gum that is equal to the gum arabic of commerce.
+
+The palo verde is a tree without leaves and is a true child of
+the desert.  No matter how hot and dry the weather the palo verde
+is always green and flourishing.  At a distance it resembles a
+weeping willow tree stripped of its leaves.  Its numerous long,
+slender, drooping branches gracefully criss-cross and interlace
+in an intricate figure of filigree work.  It has no commercial
+value, but if it could be successfully transplanted and
+transported it would make a desirable addition to green-house
+collections in the higher latitudes.
+
+The romantic mistletoe that is world renowned for its magic
+influence in love affairs, grows to perfection in southern
+Arizona.  There are several varieties of this parasitic plant
+that are very unlike in appearance.  Each kind partakes more or
+less of the characteristics of the tree upon which it grows, but
+all have the glossy leaf and waxen berry.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+HOOKER'S HOT SPRINGS
+
+Arizona has several hot springs within her borders but, perhaps,
+none are more valuable nor picturesquely located than Hooker's
+hot springs.  These springs are located in the foothills on the
+western slope of the Galiura mountains in southeastern Arizona,
+thirty-five miles west of Willcox on the Southern Pacific
+Railroad.  The spot is beautifully situated, commanding an
+extended view of valley and mountain scenery.
+
+There are a dozen springs, big and little, in the group and
+are scattered over several acres of hillside.  The temperature
+of the water is 130 degrees Fahrenheit and too hot to drink but,
+if sipped slowly, it makes an admirable hot-water draught.  The
+springs evidently have their source deep down in the earth and
+the flow of water never varies.  When the water from the
+different springs is all united it forms a good sized brook.  The
+water is conducted through pipes into the bath house, where it
+supplies a row of bath-tubs with water of any desired
+temperature.  The surplus water flows into a large earthern tank
+or artificial lake and is used for irrigating a small farm that
+produces grain, fruits and vegetables.
+
+The water from these springs is in great demand and is not only
+sought by the human biped, but is also in favor with the equine
+quadruped.  Every morning after the stable doors are thrown open
+and the horses turned loose they invariably, of their own accord,
+proceed to the lake, wade out into shallow water and take a bath.
+They lie down and splash the water about like a lot of schoolboys
+taking a swim.
+
+The water from all the springs is perfectly soft and pure.  It
+cannot be called a mineral water, as an analysis shows that it
+contains only a trace of any kind of mineral matter.  This
+peculiarity of the water is no damage to the springs, since
+purity is the best recommendation that any water can have.  Water
+that is heavily mineralized may be medicinal, but is not
+necessarily remedial, or even wholesome, notwithstanding the
+popular belief to the contrary.  Water that is charged with much
+mineral is spoiled for drinking.  Moderately hard water need not
+be injurious to anybody, but is especially beneficial to
+children.  The assimilative function in the child appropriates
+mineral water tardily and sometimes absorbs it altogether too
+slowly for the child's good.  Its absence in the system causes a
+disease called rickets, in which, from all lack of lime, the
+bones of the child become soft and yielding.  The bones of a
+rickety child will bend rather than break.  It is slow to walk
+and inclines to become bow-legged.
+
+It is entirely different in old age.  As the years multiply the
+system absorbs an abnormal and ever increasing amount of
+calcareous matter.  The bones become unduly hard and brittle and
+are easily broken.  Bony matter is liable to be deposited in and
+about the joints, when they become stiff and painful.  It also
+lodges in the various soft tissues of the body, and ossification
+of the valves of the heart and walls of the arteries sometimes
+happens.  It weakens the blood vessels so that they easily
+rupture, which causes apoplexy, paralysis and death.  Calcareous
+concretions in the kidneys and bladder, also, come from the same
+cause, and are called gravel.  Such deposits are not only
+annoying and painful to the patient, but in time may prove fatal
+if not removed by surgery.
+
+Middle-aged and elderly people should never drink anything but
+soft water.  If a natural supply of soft water cannot be obtained
+distilled water should be substituted.  If neither natural soft
+water nor distilled water are available, and there is doubt as to
+the purity of the water that is being used, it should be boiled
+and then let stand to cool and settle.  Boiling not only destroys
+and renders harmless any organic germs that may be present, but
+also precipitates and eliminates much of its inorganic salts.
+
+A few drops of a weak solution of nitrate of silver added to a
+glass of water will quickly determine its quality.  If the water
+that is being tested is free from mineral matter no change is
+produced, but if it contains mineral it turns the water opaque or
+milky.
+
+The value of mineral water as a healthful or necessary drink has
+been greatly exaggerated.  While it may do good in some
+instances, it is not nearly as beneficial as is commonly
+supposed.  Instead of it always doing good the contrary is often
+true.
+
+If a mineral water is desired there is no necessity of visiting a
+mineral spring to obtain it, as it can be made artificially at
+home or at the nearest pharmacy in any quantity or of any quality
+desired, with the additional advantage of having it contain
+exactly the ingredients wanted.  There are nearly as many mineral
+waters on the market as there are patent medicines, and both are
+about equally misrepresented and deceiving.  All classes of
+people would undoubtedly be greatly benefited in health, strength
+and longevity if more attention was given to the quality of our
+domestic water supply.  Any one who needs a change, other things
+being equal, should seek a resort that furnishes pure, soft water
+rather than choose a spring that only boasts of its mineral
+properties.  Not all of the benefit that is derived from a course
+at watering place is due to the virtues of the water, be it ever
+so potent.  The change of environment, climate, diet, bathing,
+etc., are each factors that contribute something towards a cure.
+
+Next to using pure water as a beverage it is important to know
+how to bathe properly, such knowledge being simple and plain
+enough if only common sense is used.  Usually the more simply a
+bath is administered the better are the results.  Some people
+seem to think that in order to derive any benefit from a bath it
+is necessary to employ some unusual or complicated process.
+Nothing is further from the truth.  The plain, tepid bath is the
+best for general use.  It thoroughly cleanses the body and
+produces no unpleasant shock.  A hot bath is rarely needed but,
+if it is used, enough time should be given after it to rest and
+cool off before going out into the open air in order to avoid
+taking cold.  The good or harm of a bath must be judged by its
+effects.
+
+A bath is only beneficial when it is followed by a healthy
+reaction, which is indicated by an agreeable feeling of warmth
+and comfort, and is injurious if the subject feels cold, weak or
+depressed.  A bath does not affect all people alike; what will do
+one person good may injure another.  It is never wise to
+prescribe a stereotyped treatment for every patient.  The
+disease, temperament and constitution of each individual must be
+taken into account and the temperature and frequency of the bath
+must be determined and regulated by the necessity and
+idiosyncrasies of each case.  The amount of bathing that a
+strong, full-blooded person could endure would mop out the life
+of a thin, bloodless weakling.
+
+Locally, these springs have become famous because of the
+remarkable cures they have effected, and are sought by many sick
+people who have failed to find relief by other means.  Before the
+white man came the Indians used the water for curing their sick.
+The water is curative in rheumatism, neuralgia, dyspepsia, blood
+and skin disorders and kidney complaint.  The water cure is all
+right even if it does not always fulfill every expectation.
+
+Hooker's hot springs is a pleasant place to visit for people who
+are not invalids.  It is off the beaten path of travel and is an
+ideal spot for the tired man who needs a rest.  It has not yet
+been overrun by the crowd, but retains all of the natural charm
+of freshness which the old resorts have lost.  Here nature riots
+in all of her wild beauty and has not yet been perceptibly marred
+by the despoiling hand of man.
+
+Aside from the luxury of the baths which the place affords the
+visitor can find a great deal to please him.  The climate is
+healthful and the weather pleasant during most of the year.  In
+the near vicinity much can be found in nature that is
+interesting.  Never-failing mountain streams, deep canons and
+dark forests wait to be visited and explored, while curiosities
+in animal and vegetable life abound.  Not far off is a place here
+perfect geodes of chalcedony are found.
+
+Mining and ranching are the leading industries of the country and
+a visit to some neighboring mine or cattle ranch is not without
+interest to the novice.  But, if he starts out on such a trip he
+must decide to make a day of it, as the country is sparsely
+settled and the distances long between camps.  If the
+accommodations where he stops are not always luxurious the
+welcome is cordial and the entertainment comfortable.  The new
+experience is also delightfully romantic.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+CANON ECHOES
+
+The Colorado Plateau, in northern Arizona, is the union of the
+Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains in their southward trend, and
+forms the southern rim of the Great Basin.  This depression was
+once a vast inland sea, of which nothing remains but the Salt
+Lake of Utah, and is drained by the Colorado river.  The entire
+plateau region is remarkable for its grand scenery--abysmal
+chasms, sculptured buttes and towering cliffs, which are
+"brightly colored as if painted by artist Gods, not stained and
+daubed by inharmonious hues but beautiful as flowers and gorgeous
+as the clouds."  The plateau is an immense woodland of pines
+known as the Coconino Forest.
+
+The San Francisco mountains, nearly thirteen thousand feet high,
+stand in the middle of the plateau which is, also, the center of
+an extensive extinct volcanic field.  The whole country is
+covered with cinders which were thrown from active volcanoes
+centuries ago.  The track of the Santa Fe Pacific railroad, clear
+across Arizona, is ballasted with cinders instead of gravel that
+were dug from pits on its own right of way.
+
+Near the southern base of the San Francisco mountains is the town
+of Flagstaff built in a natural forest of pine trees.  It is
+sometimes called the Skylight City because of its high altitude,
+rarefied atmosphere and brilliant sky.   It is said to have been
+named by a company of soldiers who camped on the spot while out
+hunting Indians, when the country was new.  It happened to be on
+the Fourth of July and they celebrated the day by unfurling Old
+Glory from the top of a pine tree, which was stripped of its
+branches and converted into a flagstaff.  Here is located the
+Lowell Observatory, which has made many valuable discoveries in
+astronomy.  It is a delightful spot and offers many attractions
+to the scientist, tourist and health seeker.
+
+One of the many interesting objects of this locality is the Ice
+Cave situated eight miles southwest of the town.  It not only
+attracts the curious, but its congealed stores are also drawn on
+by the people who live in the vicinity when the domestic ice
+supply runs short.  The cave is entered from the side of a ravine
+and its opening is arched by lava rock.  How the ice ever got
+there is a mystery unless it is, as Mr. Volz claims, glacial ice
+that was covered and preserved by a thick coat of cinders which
+fell when the San Francisco Peaks were in active eruption.  As
+far as observed the ice never becomes more nor ever gets less,
+except what is removed by mining.
+
+The region is unusually attractive to the naturalist.  It is the
+best field for the study of entomology that is known.  But all
+nature riots here.  Dr. C. Hart Merriam, in his report of a
+biological survey of the San Francisco mountains and Painted
+Desert, states that there are seven distinct life zones in a
+radius of twenty-five miles running the entire gamut from the
+Arctic to the Tropic.[2] The variety of life which he found and
+describes cannot be duplicated in the same space anywhere else
+upon the globe.
+
+[2] Results of a Biological Survey of the San Francisco Mountain
+Region and Painted Desert of the Little Colorado, Arizona. 1890.
+
+
+But the greatest natural wonder of this region and, it is claimed
+by competent judges of the whole world, is the Grand Canon of
+Arizona, which is seventy-two miles north of Flagstaff.
+Thurber's stage line, when it was running, carried passengers
+through in one day, but after the railroad was built from
+Williams to Bright Angel the stage was abandoned.  However it is
+an interesting trip and many people make it every summer by
+private conveyance who go for an outing and can travel leisurely.
+It is a good natural road and runs nearly the entire distance
+through an open pine forest.
+
+Two roads leave Flagstaff for the Canon called respectively the
+summer and winter roads.  The former goes west of the San
+Francisco mountains and intersects with the winter road that runs
+east of the peaks at Cedar Ranch, which was the midway station of
+the old stage line.  The summer road is the one usually
+travelled, as the winter road is almost destitute of water.
+
+The road ascends rapidly from an elevation of seven thousand feet
+at Flagstaff to eleven thousand feet at the summit, and descends
+more gradually to Cedar Ranch, where the elevation is less than
+five thousand feet and in distance is about halfway to the Canon.
+Here cedar and pinon trees take the place of the taller pines.
+Cedar Ranch is on an arm of the Painted Desert, which stretches
+away towards the east over a wide level plain to the horizon.
+From this point the road ascends again on an easy grade until it
+reaches an elevation of eight thousand feet at the Canon.
+
+During the long drive through the pine woods the appearance of
+the country gives no hint of a desert, but beautiful scenery
+greets the eye on every hand.  The air is filled with the
+fragrance of pine and ozone that is as exhilarating as wine.  No
+signs of severe windstorms are seen in broken branches and fallen
+trees.  If an occasional tree is found lying prostrate it was
+felled either by the woodman's ax or one of nature's destructive
+forces, fire or decay, or both.  But the large number of
+shattered trees which are encountered during the day give
+evidence that the lightning is frequently very destructive in its
+work.  The bark of the pine trees is of a reddish gray color,
+which contrasts brightly with the green foliage.
+
+The winter road furnishes even more attractions than the summer
+road on which line a railroad should be built through to the
+Canon.  Soon after leaving town a side road leads to the cliff
+dwellings in Walnut Canon.  Along the wayside a signboard points
+the direction to the Bottomless Pit, which is a deep hole in the
+ground that is only one of many such fissures in the earth found
+on the Colorado Plateau.  Four miles east of Canon Diablo a
+narrow fissure from a few inches  to several feet wide and
+hundreds of feet deep has been traced in a continuous line over
+one hundred miles.
+
+Further on a group of cave dwellings can be seen among the rocks
+upon a distant bill.  A turn in the road next brings the Sunset
+Mountain into view.  Its crest glows with the colors of sunset,
+which unusual effect is produced by colored rocks that are of
+volcanic origin.   Black cinders cover its steep sides and its
+brow is the rim of a deep crater.  Between Sunset Peak and
+O'Leary Peak is the Black Crater from which flowed at one time
+thick streams of black lava that hardened into rock and are known
+as the lava beds.  Scores of crater cones and miles of black
+cinders can be seen from Sunset Mountain, and lava and cinders of
+this region look as fresh as if an eruption had occurred but
+yesterday.
+
+A peculiarity of the pine trees which grow in the cinders is that
+their roots do not go down but spread out upon the surface.  Some
+of the roots are entirely bare while others are half buried in
+cinders.  They are from an inch to a foot thick and from ten to
+fifty feet long, according to the size of the tree which they
+support.  The cause of the queer root formation is not apparent.
+
+The whole plateau country is scarce of water.  The Grand Canon
+drains the ground dry to an unusual depth.  The nearest spring of
+water to the Canon at Grand View is Cedar Spring, forty miles
+distant.  Until recently all the water used at the canon was
+either packed upon burros from springs down in the canon or
+caught in ponds or reservoirs from rains or melted snow.  Since
+the completion of the railroad the water is hauled in on cars
+constructed for that purpose.
+
+The watershed of the canon slopes away from the rim and instead
+of the storm water running directly into the river it flows in
+the opposite direction.  Only after a long detour of many miles
+does it finally reach the river by the Little Colorado or
+Cataract Creek.
+
+Now that the Grand Canon is made accessible by rail over a branch
+road of the Santa Fe from Williams on the main line, it is
+reached in comparative ease and comfort.  But to stop at the
+Bright Angel Hotel and look over the guard rail on the cliff down
+into the canon gives merely a glimpse of what there is to see.  A
+brief stay of one day is better than not stopping at all, but to
+get even an inkling of its greatness and grandeur days and weeks
+must be spent in making trips up and down and into the canon.
+
+After having seen the canon at Bright Angel the next move should
+be to go to Grand View fourteen miles up the canon.  An all day's
+stage ride from Flagstaff to the canon was tiresome, but the two
+hours' drive through the pine woods from Bright Angel to Grand
+View is only pleasant recreation.
+
+Seeing the Grand Canon for the first time does not necessarily
+produce the startling and lachrymose effects that have been
+described by some emotional writers, but the first sight never
+disappoints and always leaves a deep and lasting impression.
+
+As immense as is the great chasm it is formed in such harmonious
+proportions that it does not shock the senses.  But as everything
+about the canon is built on such a grand scale and the eyes not
+being accustomed to such sights it is impossible to comprehend
+it--to measure its dimensions correctly or note every detail of
+form and color at the first glance.  As the guide remarked, "God
+made it so d-- big that you can't lie about it."
+
+To comprehend it at all requires time to re-educate the senses
+and make them accustomed to the new order of things.  But even a
+cursory view will always remain in the memory as the event of a
+lifetime in the experience of the average mortal.
+
+Distance in the canon cannot be measured by the usual standards.
+There are sheer walls of rocks that are thousands of feet high
+and as many more feet deep, but where the bottom seems to be is
+only the beginning of other chasms which lie in the dark shadows
+and descend into yet deeper depths below.  The canon is not a
+single empty chasm, which is the universal conception of a canon,
+but consists of a complex system of sub and side canons that is
+bewildering.  Out of its depths rise an infinite number and
+variety of castellated cliffs and sculptured buttes that
+represent every conceivable variety of architecture.  They have
+the appearance of a resurrected city of great size and beauty
+which might have been built by an army of Titans then buried and
+forgotten.
+
+A trip into the canon down one of the trails makes its magnitude
+even more impressive than a rim view.  The distance across the
+chasm is also much greater than what it seems to be, which is
+demonstrated by the blue haze that fills the canon.  The nearby
+buttes are perfectly distinct, but as the distance increases
+across the great gorge the haze gradually thickens until the
+opposite wall is almost obscured by the mist.
+
+The myriads of horizontal lines which mark the different strata
+of rocks have the appearance of a maze of telegraph wires strung
+through the canon.
+
+A ride leisurely on horseback along the rim trail from Thurber's
+old camp to Bissell's Point, seven miles up the canon, and back
+is easily made in a day.  It presents a panorama of magnificent
+views all along the rim, but Bissell's is conceded to be the best
+view point on the canon.  From this point about thirty miles of
+river can be seen as it winds in and out deep down among the
+rocks.  The Colorado river is a large stream, but as seen here a
+mile below and several miles out, it dwindles into insignificance
+and appears no larger than a meadow brook.  The river looks
+placid in the distance, but is a raging, turbulent torrent in
+which an ordinary boat cannot live and the roar of its wild
+waters can be distinctly heard as of the rushing of a distant
+train of cars.
+
+A second day spent in riding down the canon to Grand View Point
+and back is equally delightful.  Looking across a bend in the
+canon from Grand View Point to Bissell's Point the distance seems
+to be scarcely more than a stone's throw, yet it is fully half
+the distance of the circuitous route by the rim trail.
+
+There are three trails leading into the canon and down to the
+river, the Bright Angel, Grand View and Hance trails, which are
+at intervals of eight and twelve miles apart.  They are equally
+interesting and comparatively safe if the trip is made on the
+back of a trained pony or burro with a competent guide.
+
+The Hance trail is a loop and is twenty miles long.  It is seven
+miles down to the river, six miles up the stream and seven miles
+back to the rim.  It was built single handed by Captain John
+Hance, who has lived many years in the canon.  The trail is free
+to pedestrians, but yields the captain a snug income from horse
+hire and his own services as guide for tourists who go over the
+trail.
+
+Captain Hance is an entertaining raconteur and he spins many
+interesting yarns for the amusement, if not the edification, of
+his guests.  The serious manner in which he relates his stories
+makes it sometimes hard to tell whether he is in jest or earnest.
+His acknowledged skill in mountaineering, and felicity in
+romancing has won for him more than a local reputation and the
+distinguished title of Grand Canon Guide and Prevaricator.
+
+He relates how "once upon a time" he pursued a band of mountain
+sheep on the rim of the canon.  Just as he was about to secure
+his quarry the sheep suddenly turned a short corner and
+disappeared behind some rocks.  Before he realized his danger he
+found himself on the brink of a yawning abyss and under such a
+momentum that he could not turn aside or stop his horse.
+Together they went over the cliff in an awful leap.  He expected
+to meet instant death on the rocks below and braced himself for
+the shock.  As the fall was greater than usual, being over a mile
+deep in a perpendicular line, it required several seconds for the
+descending bodies to traverse the intervening space, which gave
+him a few moments to think and plan some way of escape.  At the
+critical moment a happy inspiration seized and saved him.  On the
+instant that his horse struck the rock and was dashed to pieces,
+the captain sprang nimbly from the saddle to his feet unharmed.
+To prove the truth of his statement he never misses an
+opportunity to point out to the tourist the spot where his horse
+fell, and shows the white bones of his defunct steed bleaching in
+the sun.
+
+At Moran's Point there is a narrow cleft in the rocks which he
+calls the Fat Woman's Misery.  It received its name several years
+ago from a circumstance that happened while he was conducting a
+party of tourists along the rim trail.  To obtain a better view
+the party essayed to squeeze through the opening, in which
+attempt all succeeded except one fat women who stuck fast.  After
+vainly trying to extricate her from her uncomfortable position he
+finally told her that there was but one of two things to do,
+either remain where she was and starve to death or take one
+chance in a thousand of being blown out alive by dynamite.  After
+thinking a moment she decided to try the "one chance in a
+thousand" experiment.
+
+A charge of dynamite was procured and the fuse lighted.  After
+the explosion he returned to the spot and found the result
+satisfactory.  The blast had released the woman, who was alive
+and sitting upon a rock.  He approached her cheerfully and said:
+
+"Madam, how do you feel?"  She looked up shocked, but evidently
+very much relieved, and replied "Why, sir, I feel first rate, but
+the jolt gave me a little toothache."
+
+He tells another story of how he once took a drink from the
+Colorado river.  The water is never very clear in the muddy
+stream but at that particular time it was unusually murky.  He
+had nothing with which to dip the water and lay down on the bank
+to take a drink.  Being very thirsty he paid no attention to the
+quality of the water, but only knew that it tasted wet.  The
+water, however, grew thicker as he drank until it became balled
+up in his mouth, and stuck fast in his throat and threatened to
+choke him.  He tried to bite it off but failed because his teeth
+were poor.  At last becoming desperate, he pulled his hunting
+knife from his belt and cut himself loose from his drink.
+
+Different theories have been advanced to account for the origin
+of the Grand Canon, but it is a question whether it is altogether
+due to any one cause.  Scientists say that it is the work of
+water erosion, but to the layman it seems impossible.  If an
+ocean of water should flow over rocks during eons of ages it does
+not seem possible that it could cut such a channel.
+
+Water sometimes does queer things, but it has never been known to
+reverse nature.  By a fundamental law of hydrostatics water
+always seeks its level and flows in the direction of least
+resistance.  If water ever made the Grand Canon it had to climb a
+hill and cut its way through the backbone of the Buckskin
+mountains, which are not a range of peaks but a broad plateau of
+solid rock.  Into this rock the canon is sunk more than a mile
+deep, from six to eighteen miles wide and over two hundred miles
+long.
+
+In order to make the theory of water erosion tenable it is
+assumed that the Colorado river started in its incipiency like
+any other river.  After a time the river bed began to rise and
+was gradually pushed up more and more by some unknown
+subterranean force as the water cut deeper and deeper into the
+rock until the Grand Canon was formed.
+
+Captain Hance has a theory that the canon originated in an
+underground stream which tunneled until it cut its way through to
+the surface.  As improbable as is this theory it is as plausible
+as the erosion theory, but both theories appear to be equally
+absurd.
+
+At some remote period of time the entire southwest was rent and
+torn by an awful cataclysm which caused numerous fissures and
+seams to appear all over the country.  The force that did the
+work had its origin in the earth and acted by producing lateral
+displacement rather than direct upheaval.  Whenever that event
+occurred the fracture which marks the course of the Grand Canon
+was made and, breaking through the enclosing wall of the Great
+Basin, set free the waters of an inland sea.  What the seismic
+force began the flood of liberated water helped to finish, and
+there was born the greatest natural wonder of the known world.
+
+There are canons all over Arizona and the southwest that resemble
+the Grand Canon, except that they were made on a smaller scale.
+Many of them are perfectly dry and apparently never contained any
+running water.  They are all so much alike that they were
+evidently made at the same time and by the same cause.  Walnut
+Canon and Canon Diablo are familiar examples of canon formation.
+
+The rocks in the canons do not stand on end, but lie in
+horizontal strata and show but little dip anywhere.  Indeed, the
+rocks lie so plumb in many places that they resemble the most
+perfect masonry.
+
+The rim rock of the Mogollon Mesa is of the same character as the
+walls of the Grand Canon and is an important part of the canon
+system.  It is almost a perpendicular cliff from one to three
+thousand feet high which extends from east to west across central
+Arizona and divides the great northern plateau from the southern
+valleys.  It is one side of an immense vault or canon wall whose
+mate has been lost or dropped completely out of sight.
+
+In many of the canons where water flows continuously, effects are
+produced that are exactly the opposite of those ascribed to water
+erosion.  Instead of the running water cutting deeper into the
+earth it has partly filled the canon with alluvium, thereby
+demonstrating nature's universal leveling process.  Even the
+floods of water which pour through them during every rainy season
+with an almost irresistible force carry in more soil than they
+wash out and every freshet only adds new soil to the old
+deposits.  If these canons were all originally made by water
+erosion as is claimed, why does not the water continue to act in
+the same manner now but, instead, completely reverses itself as
+above stated?  There can be but one of two conclusions, either
+that nature has changed or that scientists are mistaken.
+
+The Aravaipa in southern Arizona is an interesting canon and is
+typical of its kind.  Its upper half is shallow and bounded by
+low rolling foothills, but in the middle it suddenly deepens and
+narrows into a box canon, which has high perpendicular walls of
+solid rock like the Grand Canon.  It is a long, narrow valley
+sunk deep into the earth and has great fertility and much wild
+beauty.  It measures from a few feet to a mile in width and
+drains a large scope of rough country.  The surface water which
+filters through from above reappears in numerous springs of clear
+cold water in the bottom of the canon.  In the moist earth and
+under the shade of forest trees grow a variety of rare flowers,
+ferns and mosses.
+
+Where the canon begins to box a large spring of pure cold water
+issues from the sand in the bottom of a wash which is the source
+of the Aravaipa creek.  It flows through many miles of rich
+alluvial land and empties into the San Predo river.  The valley
+was settled many years ago by men who were attracted to the spot
+by its rare beauty, fertility of soil and an abundance of wood
+and water.
+
+The land is moist and covered by a heavy growth of forest trees,
+which will average over one hundred feet high.  The trees are as
+large and the foliage as dense as in any eastern forest.  Being
+sunk deep in the earth the narrow valley at the bottom of the
+canon can only be seen from above.  When viewed from some
+favorable point it has the appearance of a long green ribbon
+stretched loosely over a brown landscape.  The sight of it is a
+pleasant surprise to the weary wayfarer who, after traveling over
+many miles of dreary desert road, finds himself suddenly ushered
+into such pleasant scenes.
+
+The canons of Arizona are unrivaled for grandeur, sublimity and
+beauty, and will attract an ever increasing number of admirers.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+THE METEORITE MOUNTAIN
+
+Ten miles southeast of Canon Diablo station on the Santa Fe
+Pacific Railroad, stands the Meteorite Mountain of Arizona, on a
+wide, open plain of the Colorado Plateau.  It is two hundred feet
+high and, as seen at a distance, has the appearance of a low,
+flat mountain.  Its top forms the rim of an immense, round,
+bowl-shaped hole in the ground that has almost perpendicular
+sides, is one mile wide and over six hundred feet deep.  The
+hole, originally, was evidently very much deeper than it is at
+the present time, but it has gradually become filled with debris
+to its present depth.  The bottom of the hole has a floor of
+about forty acres of level ground which merges into a talus.
+
+This formation is sometimes called the Crater, because of its
+shape, but there is no evidence of volcanic action.  Locally it
+is known as Coon Butte, which is a misnomer; but Meteorite
+Mountain is a name with a meaning.
+
+It is not known positively just how or when the mountain was
+formed, but the weight of evidence seems to favor the meteorite
+theory, which is that at some remote period of time a monster
+meteorite fell from the sky and buried itself in the earth.
+
+Mr. F. W. Volz, who has lived in the country twenty years and is
+an intelligent observer of natural phenomena, has made a careful
+study of the mountain, and it is his opinion that such an event
+actually occurred and that a falling star made the mountain.
+When the descending meteorite, with its great weight and terrific
+momentum, hit the earth something had to happen.  It buried
+itself deep beneath the surface and caused the earth to heave up
+on all sides.  The effect produced is aptly illustrated, on a
+small scale, by throwing a rock into thick mud.
+
+The impact of the meteorite upon the earth not only caused an
+upheaval of the surface, but it also crushed and displaced the
+rocks beneath.  As the stellar body penetrated deeper into the
+earth its force became more concentrated and either compressed
+the rocks into a denser mass or ground them to powder.
+
+The plain on which the mountain stands is covered by a layer of
+red sandstone of variable thickness, as it is much worn in places
+by weather erosion.  Below the top covering of red sandstone lie
+three hundred feet of limestone and beneath the limestone five
+hundred feet more of white sandstone.  This arrangement of the
+rocks is plainly seen in the walls of Canon Diablo.
+
+The displaced strata of rocks in the hole are tilted and stand
+outwards and great boulders of red sandstone and limestone lie
+scattered all about.  If the hole had been made by an explosion
+from below large pieces of rock from each one of the different
+rock strata would have been thrown out; but, while as just
+stated, there are plenty of huge blocks of red sandstone and
+limestone, there are no large pieces of white sandstone.  After
+the superficial layers of rock had been broken up and expelled en
+masse, the deeper rock of white sandstone, being more confined,
+could not reach the surface in the shape of boulders, but had
+first to be broken up and ground to powder before it could
+escape.  Then the white sandstones in the form of fine sand was
+blown skywards by the collision and afterwards settled down upon
+the mountain.  The mountain is covered with this white sand,
+which could only have come out of the big hole as there is no
+other white sand or sandstone found anywhere else upon the entire
+plain.
+
+In the vicinity of the mountain about ten tons of meteorites have
+been found, varying in size from the fraction of an ounce to one
+thousand pounds or more.  Most of the meteorites were found by
+Mr. Volz, who searched diligently every foot of ground for miles
+around.  The smaller pieces were picked up on or near the rim,
+and they increased in size in proportion as they were distant
+from the mountain until, on a circle eight miles out, the largest
+piece was found.  Meteorites were found upon all sides of the
+mountain but they seemed to be thickest on the east side.
+
+The writer first visited the mountain in the summer of 1901 and
+it was the greatest surprise of his six weeks' trip sightseeing
+in northern Arizona where are found many natural wonders.  He was
+fortunate enough to find a three pound meteorite within five
+minutes after arriving on the rim, which Mr. Volz said was the
+first specimen found by anyone in over four years.
+
+Professor G. K. Gilbert of the United States Geological Survey
+visited the mountain several years ago to investigate the
+phenomenon and, if possible, to determine its origin by
+scientific test.  He gave the results of his researches in a very
+able and comprehensive address,[3] delivered before the
+Geological Society of Washington, D.C.  The existing conditions
+did not seem to fit his theories, and he concluded his work
+without arriving at any definite conclusion.
+
+[3] The Origin of Hypotheses. 1895.
+
+
+After disposing of several hypotheses as being incompetent to
+prove the origin of the mountain he decided to try the magnetic
+test.  He assumed that if such a meteorite was buried there the
+large mass of metallic iron must indicate its presence by
+magnetic attraction.  By means of the latest scientific apparatus
+he conducted an elaborate magnetic experiment which gave only
+negative results.
+
+He discussed at length the various hypotheses which might explain
+the origin of the crater and concluded his notable address as
+follows:
+
+"Still another contribution to the subject, while it does not
+increase the number of hypotheses, is nevertheless important in
+that it tends to diminish the weight of the magnetic evidence and
+thus to reopen the question which Mr. Baker and I supposed we had
+settled.  Our fellow-member, Mr. Edwin E. Howell, through whose
+hands much of the meteoric iron had passed, points out that each
+of the iron masses, great and small, is in itself a complete
+individual.  They have none of the characters that would be found
+if they had been broken one from another, and yet, as they are
+all of one type and all reached the earth within a small
+district, it must be supposed that they were originally connected
+in some way.
+
+"Reasoning by analogy from the characters of other meteoric
+bodies, he infers that the irons were all included in a large
+mass of some different material, either crystalline rock, such as
+constitutes the class of meteorites called 'stony,' or else a
+compound of iron and sulphur, similar to certain nodules
+discovered inside the iron masses when sawn in two.  Neither of
+these materials is so enduring as iron, and the fact that they
+are not now found on the plain does not prove their original
+absence.  Moreover, the plain is strewn in the vicinity of the
+crater with bits of limonite, a mineral frequently produced by
+the action of air and water on iron sulphides, and this material
+is much more abundant than the iron.  If it be true that the iron
+masses were thus imbedded, like plums in an astral pudding, the
+hypothetic buried star might have great size and yet only small
+power to attract the magnetic needle.  Mr. Howell also proposes a
+qualification of the test by volumes, suggesting that some of the
+rocks beneath the buried star might have been condensed by the
+shock so as to occupy less space.
+
+"These considerations are eminently pertinent to the study of the
+crater and will find appropriate place in any comprehensive
+discussion of its origin; but the fact which is peculiarly worthy
+of note at the present time is their ability to unsettle a
+conclusion that was beginning to feel itself secure.  This
+illustrates the tentative nature not only of the hypotheses of
+science, but of what science calls its results.
+
+"The method of hypotheses, and that method is the method of
+science, founds its explanations of nature wholly on observed
+facts, and its results are ever subject to the limitations
+imposed by imperfect observation.  However grand, however widely
+accepted, however useful its conclusions, none is so sure that it
+cannot be called into question by a newly discovered fact.  In
+the domain of the world's knowledge there is no infallibility."
+
+After Prof. Gilbert had finished his experiments, Mr. Volz tried
+some of his own along the same line.  He found upon trial that
+the meteorites in his possession were non-magnetic, or,
+practically so.  If these, being pieces of the larger meteorite
+which was buried in the hole, were non-magnetic, all of it must
+be non-magnetic, which would account for the failure of the
+needle to act or manifest any magnetic attraction in the greater
+test.
+
+Mr. Volz also made another interesting discovery in this same
+connection.  All over the meteorite zone are scattered about
+small pieces of iron which he calls "iron shale."  It is
+analogous to the true meteorite, but is "burnt" or "dead."  He
+regards these bits of iron as dead sparks from a celestial forge,
+which fell from the meteorite as it blazed through the heavens.
+
+In experimenting with the stuff he found that it was not only
+highly magnetic, but also possessed polarity in a marked degree;
+and was entirely different from the true meteorite.  Here was a
+curiosity, indeed; a small, insignificant and unattractive stone
+possessed of strong magnetic polarity, a property of electricity
+that is as mysterious and incomprehensible as is electricity
+itself.
+
+Another peculiarity of Canon Diablo meteorite is that it contains
+diamonds.  When the meteorite was first discovered by a Mexican
+sheep herder he supposed that he had found a large piece of
+silver, because of its great weight and luster, but he was soon
+informed of his mistake.  Not long afterwards a white prospector
+who heard of the discovery undertook to use it to his own
+advantage, by claiming that he had found a mine of pure iron,
+which he offered for sale.  In an attempt to dispose of the
+property samples of the ore were sent east for investigation.
+Some of the stone fell into the hands of Dr. Foote, who
+pronounced it to be meteorite and of celestial origin.
+
+Sir William Crookes in discussing the theory of the meteoric
+origin of diamonds[4] says "the most striking confirmation of the
+meteoric theory comes from Arizona.  Here, on a broad open plain,
+over an area about five miles in diameter, were scattered from
+one to two thousand masses of metallic iron, the fragments
+varying in weight from half a ton to a fraction of an ounce.
+There is little doubt that these masses formed part of a
+meteorite shower, although no record exists as to when the fall
+took place.  Curiously enough, near the center, where most of the
+meteoritics have been found, is a crater with raised edges three
+quarters of a mile in diameter and about six hundred feet deep,
+bearing exactly the appearance which would be produced had a
+mighty mass of iron or falling star struck the ground, scattering
+in all directions, and buried itself deep under the surface.
+Altogether ten tons of this iron have been collected, and
+specimens of Canyon Diablo Meteorite are in most collectors'
+cabinets.
+
+[4] Diamonds.  Wm. Crookes, F.R.S. Smithsonian Report. 1897.
+
+
+"An ardent mineralogist, the late Dr. Foote, in cutting a section
+of this meteorite, found the tools were injured by something
+vastly harder than metallic iron, and an emery wheel used in
+grinding the iron had been ruined.  He examined the specimen
+chemically, and soon after announced to the scientific world that
+the Canyon Diablo Meteorite contained black and transparent
+diamonds.  This startling discovery was afterwards verified by
+Professors Friedel and Moissan, who found that the Canyon Diablo
+Meteorite contained the three varieties of carbon--diamond
+(transparent and black), graphite and amorphous carbon.  Since
+this revelation the search for diamonds in meteorites has
+occupied the attention of chemists all over the world.
+
+"Here, then, we have absolute proof of the truth of the meteoric
+theory.  Under atmospheric influences the iron would rapidly
+oxidize and rust away, coloring the adjacent soil with red oxide
+of iron.  The meteoric diamonds would be unaffected and left on
+the surface to be found by explorers when oxidation had removed
+the last proof of their celestial origin.  That there are still
+lumps of iron left in Arizona is merely due to the extreme
+dryness of the climate and the comparatively short time that the
+iron has been on our planet.  We are here witnesses to the course
+of an event which may have happened in geologic times anywhere on
+the earth's surface.
+
+About a year ago several mineral claims were located in the
+crater by a company of scientific and moneyed men.  The required
+assessment work was done and a patent for the land obtained from
+the government.  The object of the enterprise is for a double
+purpose, if possible to solve the mystery of the mountain, and if
+successful in finding the "hypothetic buried star" to excavate
+and appropriate it for its valuable iron.
+
+A shaft has been sunk one hundred and ninety-five feet deep,
+where a strong flow of water was encountered in a bed of white
+sand which temporarily stopped the work.  A gasoline engine and
+drill were procured and put in operation and the drill was driven
+down forty feet further when it stuck fast in white quicksand.
+It is the intention of the company to continue the work and carry
+it on to a successful finish.
+
+Nothing of value was found in the hole dug, but some of the
+workmen in their leisure hours found on the surface two large
+meteorites weighing one hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds
+respectively, besides a number of smaller fragments.
+
+The Meteorite Mountain is in a class by itself and is, in a
+way, as great a curiosity as is the Grand Canon.  It is little
+known and has not received the attention that it deserves.
+It is, indeed, marvelous and only needs to be seen to be
+appreciated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+THE CLIFF DWELLERS
+
+In the canons of the Colorado river and its tributaries are found
+the ruins of an ancient race of cliff dwellers.  These ruins are
+numerous and are scattered over a wide scope of country, which
+includes Arizona and portions of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
+Many of them are yet in a good state of preservation, but all
+show the marks of age and decay.  They are not less than four
+hundred years old and are, in all probability, much older.  Their
+preservation is largely due to their sheltered position among the
+rocks and an exceptionally dry climate.
+
+The houses are invariably built upon high cliffs on shelving
+rocks in places that are almost inaccessible.  In some instances
+they can only be reached by steps cut into the solid rock, which
+are so old and worn that they are almost obliterated.  Their
+walls so nearly resemble the stratified rocks upon which they
+stand, that they are not easily distinguished from their
+surroundings.
+
+The cliffs are often sloping, sometimes overhanging, but more
+frequently perpendicular.  The weather erosion of many centuries
+has caused the softer strata of exposed rocks in the cliffs to
+disintegrate and fall away, which left numberless caverns wherein
+this ancient and mysterious people chose to build their eyrie
+homes to live with the eagles.  The houses are built of all
+shapes and sizes and, apparently, were planned to fit the
+irregular and limited space of their environment.  Circular watch
+towers look down from commanding heights which, from their shape
+and position, were evidently intended to serve the double purpose
+of observation and defense.
+
+In the search for evidence of their antiquity it is believed that
+data has been found which denotes great age.  In the construction
+of some of their houses, notably those in the Mancos Canon, is
+displayed a technical knowledge of architecture and a
+mathematical accuracy which savages do not possess; and the fine
+masonry of dressed stone and superior cement seem to prove that
+Indians were not the builders.  On the contrary, to quote a
+recent writer, "The evidence goes to show that the work was done
+by skilled workmen who were white masons and who built for white
+people in a prehistoric age."  In this connection it is singular,
+if not significant, that the natives when first discovered
+believed in a bearded white man whom they deified as the Fair God
+of whose existence they had obtained knowledge from some source
+and in whose honor they kept their sacred altar fires burning
+unquenched.
+
+The relics that have been found in the ruins are principally
+implements of the stone age, but are of sufficient variety to
+indicate a succession of races that were both primitive and
+cultured and as widely separated in time as in knowledge.
+
+The cliff dwellings were not only the abodes of their original
+builders, but were occupied and deserted successively by the
+chipped stone implement maker, the polisher of hard stone, the
+basket maker and the weaver.
+
+Among the relics that have been found in the ruins are some very
+fine specimens of pottery which are as symmetrical and well
+finished as if they had been turned on a potter's wheel, and
+covered with an opaque enamel of stanniferous glaze composed of
+lead and tin that originated with the Phoenicians, and is as old
+as history.  Can it be possible that the cliff dwellers are a
+lost fragment of Egyptian civilization?
+
+The cliff ruins in Arizona are not only found in the canons of
+the Colorado river, but also in many other places.  The finest of
+them are Montezuma's Castle on Beaver creek, and the Casa Blanca
+in Canon de Chelly.  Numerous other ruins are found on the Rio
+Verde, Gila river, Walnut Canon and elsewhere.
+
+The largest and finest group of cliff dwellings are those on the
+Mesa Verde in Colorado.  They are fully described in the great
+work[5] of Nordenskiold, who spent much time among them.  The
+different houses are named after some peculiarity of appearance
+or construction, like the Cliff Palace, which contains more than
+one hundred rooms, Long House, Balcony House, Spruce Tree House,
+etc.
+
+[5] The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, by F. Nordenskiold,
+Stockholm. 1893.
+
+
+He obtained a large quantity of relics, which are also fully
+described, consisting of stone implements, pottery, cotton and
+feather cloth, osier and palmillo mats, yucca sandals, weaving
+sticks, bone awls, corn and beans.
+
+Many well-preserved mummies were found buried in graves that were
+carefully closed and sealed.  The bodies were wrapped in a fine
+cotton cloth of drawn work, which was covered by a coarser cloth
+resembling burlap, and all inclosed in a wrapping of palmillo
+matting tied with a cord made of the fiber of cedar bark.  The
+hair is fine and of a brown color, and not coarse and black like
+the hair of the wild Indians.  Mummies have been exhumed that
+have red or light colored hair such as usually goes with a fair
+skin.  This fact has led some to believe that the cliff dwellers
+belonged to the white race, but not necessarily so, as this
+quality of hair also belongs to albinos, who doubtless lived
+among the cliff dwellers as they do among the Moquis and Zunis at
+the present day, and explains the peculiarity of hair just
+mentioned.
+
+These remains may be very modern, as some choose to believe, but,
+in all probability, they are more ancient than modern.  Mummies
+encased in wood and cloth have been taken from the tombs of Egypt
+in an almost perfect state of preservation which cannot be less
+than two thousand years old, and are, perhaps, more than double
+that age.  As there is no positive knowledge as to when the cliff
+dwellers flourished, one man's guess on the subject is as good as
+another's.
+
+An important discovery was recently made near Mancos, Colorado,
+where a party of explorers found in some old cliff dwellings
+graves beneath graves that were entirely different from anything
+yet discovered.  They were egg-shaped, built of stone and
+plastered smoothly with clay.  They contained mummies, cloth,
+sandals, beads and various other trinkets.  There was no pottery,
+but many well-made baskets, and their owners have been called the
+basket makers.  There was also a difference in the skulls found.
+The cliff dwellers' skull is short and flattened behind, while
+the skulls that were found in these old graves were long, narrow
+and round on the back.[6]
+
+[6] An Elder Brother of the Cliff Dwellers, by T. M. Prudden,
+M.D.  Harper's Magazine, June, 1897.
+
+
+Rev. H. M. Baum, who has traveled all over the southwest and
+visited every large ruin in the country, considers that Canon de
+Chelly and its branch, del Muerto, is the most interesting
+prehistoric locality in the United States.  The Navajos, who now
+live in the canon, have a tradition that the people who occupied
+the old cliff houses were all destroyed in one day by a wind of
+fire.[7] The occurrence, evidently, was similar to what happened
+recently on the island of Martinique, when all the inhabitants of
+the village of St. Pierre perished in an hour by the eruption of
+Mont Pelee.
+
+[7] Pueblo and Cliff Dwellers of the Southwest.  Records of the
+Past, December, 1902.
+
+
+Contemporaneous with the cliff dwellers there seems to have lived
+a race of people in the adjoining valleys who built cities and
+tilled the soil. Judged by their works they must have been an
+industrious, intelligent and numerous people.  All over the
+ground are strewn broken pieces of pottery that are painted in
+bright colors and artistic designs which, after ages of exposure
+to the weather, look as fresh as if newly made, The relics that
+have been taken from the ruins are similar to those found in the
+cliff houses, and consist mostly of stone implements and pottery.
+
+In the Gila valley, near the town of Florence, stands the now
+famous Casa Grande ruin, which is the best preserved of all these
+ancient cities.  It was a ruin when the Spaniards first
+discovered it, and is a type of the ancient communal house.  Its
+thick walls are composed of a concrete adobe that is as hard as
+rock, and its base lines conform to the cardinal points of, the
+compass.   It is an interesting relic of a past age and an
+extinct race and, if it cannot yield up its secrets to science,
+it at least appeals to the spirit of romance and mystery.
+
+Irrigating ditches which were fed from reservoirs supplied their
+fields and houses with water.  Portions of these old canals are
+yet in existence and furnish proof of the diligence and skill of
+their builders.  The ditches were located on levels that could
+not be improved upon for utilizing the land and water to the best
+advantage.  Modern engineers have not been able to better them
+and in many places the old levels are used in new ditches at the
+present time.
+
+Whatever may have been the fate of this ancient people their
+destruction must be sought in natural causes rather than by human
+warfare.  An adverse fate probably cut off their water supply and
+laid waste their productive fields.  With their crops a failure
+and all supplies gone what else could the people do but either
+starve or move, but as to the nature of the exodus history is
+silent.
+
+Just how ancient these works are might be difficult to prove, but
+they are certainly not modern.  The evidence denotes that they
+have existed a long time.  Where the water in a canal flowed over
+solid rock the rock has been much worn.  Portions of the old
+ditches are filled with lava and houses lie buried in the
+vitreous flood.  It is certain that the country was inhabited
+prior to the last lava flow whether that event occurred hundreds
+or thousands of years ago.
+
+It is claimed that the Pueblo Indians and cliff dwellers are
+identical and that the latter were driven from their peaceful
+valley homes by a hostile foe to find temporary shelter among the
+rocks, but such a conclusion seems to be erroneous in view of
+certain facts.
+
+The cliff dwellings were not temporary camps, as such a migration
+would imply, but places of permanent abode.  The houses are too
+numerous and well constructed to be accounted for on any other
+hypothesis.  A people fleeing periodically to the cliffs to
+escape from an enemy could not have built such houses.  Indeed,
+they are simply marvelous when considered as to location and
+construction.  The time that must necessarily have been consumed
+in doing the work and the amount of danger and labor involved--
+labor in preparing and getting the material into place and danger
+in scaling the dizzy heights over an almost impassible trail, it
+seems the boldest assumption to assert that the work was done by
+a fleeing and demoralized mob.
+
+Again, it would be a physical impossibility for a people who were
+only accustomed to agricultural pursuits to suddenly and
+completely change their habits of life such as living among the
+rocks would necessitate.  Only by native instinct and daily
+practice from childhood would it be possible for any people to
+follow the narrow and difficult paths which were habitually
+traveled by the cliff dwellers.  It requires a clear head and
+steady nerves to perform the daring feat in safety--to the truth
+of which statement modern explorers can testify who have made the
+attempt in recent years at the peril of life and limb while
+engaged in searching for archaeological treasures.
+
+Judged by the everyday life that is familiar to us it seems
+incredible that houses should ever have been built or homes
+established in such hazardous places, or that any people should
+have ever lived there.  But that they did is an established fact
+as there stand the houses which were built and occupied by human
+beings in the midst of surroundings that might appall the
+stoutest heart.  Children played and men and women wrought on the
+brink of frightful precipices in a space so limited and dangerous
+that a single misstep made it fatal.
+
+It is almost impossible to conceive of any condition in life, or
+combination of circumstances in the affairs of men, that should
+drive any people to the rash act of living in the houses of the
+cliff dwellers.  Men will sometimes do from choice what they
+cannot be made to do by compulsion.  It is easier to believe that
+the cliff dwellers, being free people, chose of their own accord
+the site of their habitation rather than that from any cause they
+were compelled to make the choice.  Their preference was to live
+upon the cliffs, as they were fitted by nature for such an
+environment.
+
+For no other reason, apparently, do the Moquis live upon their
+rocky and barren mesas away from everything which the civilized
+white man deems desirable, yet, in seeming contentment.  The
+Supais, likewise, choose to live alone at the bottom of Cataract
+Canon where they are completely shut in by high cliffs.  Their
+only road out is by a narrow and dangerous trail up the side of
+the canon, which is little traveled as they seldom leave home and
+are rarely visited.
+
+To affirm that the cliff dwellers were driven from their
+strongholds and dispersed by force is pure fiction, nor is there
+any evidence to support such a theory.  That they had enemies no
+one doubts, but, being in possession of an impregnable position
+where one man could successfully withstand a thousand, to
+surrender would have been base cowardice, and weakness was not a
+characteristic of the cliff dwellers.
+
+The question of their subsistence is likewise a puzzle.  They
+evidently cultivated the soil where it was practicable to do so
+as fragments of farm products have been found in their dwellings,
+but in the vicinity of some of the houses there is no tillable
+land and the inhabitants must have depended upon other means for
+support.  The wild game which was, doubtless, abundant furnished
+them with meat and edible seeds, fruits and roots from native
+plants like the pinon pine and mesquite which together with the
+saguaro and mescal, supplied them with a variety of food
+sufficient for their subsistence as they do, in a measure, the
+wild Indian tribes of that region at the present day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+THE MOQUI INDIANS
+
+The Indians of Arizona are, perhaps, the most interesting of any
+of the American aborigines.  They are as unique and picturesque
+as is the land which they inhabit; and the dead are no less so
+than the living.
+
+The Pueblo Indians, with which the Moquis are classed, number
+altogether about ten thousand and are scattered in twenty-six
+villages over Arizona and New Mexico.  They resemble each other
+in many respects, but do not all speak the same language.  They
+represent several wholly disconnected stems and are classified
+linguistically by Brinton as belonging to the Uto-Aztecan, Kera,
+Tehua and Zuni stocks.  He believes that the Pueblo civilization
+is not due to any one unusually gifted lineage, but is altogether
+a local product, developed in independent tribes by their
+peculiar environment, which is favorable to agriculture and
+sedentary pursuits.[8]
+
+[8] The American Race, by D. G. Brinton, 1891.
+
+
+The houses are constructed of stone and adobe, are several
+stories high and contain many apartments.  None of the existing
+pueblos are as large as some that are in ruins which, judging by
+the quantity of debris, must have been huge affairs.  Since the
+advent of the Spaniard the style of building has changed somewhat
+to conform to modern ideas, so that now some families live in
+separate one-story houses having doors and windows, instead, as
+formerly, only in large communal houses that were built and
+conducted on the communal plan.
+
+Their manners and customs are peculiar to themselves and make an
+interesting study.  Their civilization is entirely original,
+though modified to some extent by centuries of contact with the
+whites.  They understand the Spanish language, but have not
+forgotten their mother tongue.  They hold tenaciously to their
+old customs and have not changed materially during the past four
+hundred years.
+
+During that time the Catholic missionaries endeavored to convert
+them to Christianity, but with only partial success.  While they
+appeared to acquiesce, by giving formal obedience to the
+requirements of the new religion, they yet held sacred their old
+beliefs and in the privacy of the estufa practiced in secret the
+rites and ceremonies of their ancient faith.
+
+The Spaniards undertook to conquer a free and independent people
+by teaching them dependence and submission, but signally failed.
+After a struggle of two hundred and eighty years Spanish
+civilization withdrew and left the Pueblo civilization
+victorious.
+
+Under successive Spanish, Mexican and American rule the Pueblo
+has preserved itself intact which fact stamps the Pueblo people
+as being eminently valiant, self-reliant and persevering.  They
+are peaceable, industrious and hospitable and are said to be the
+best governed people in the world.  As nearly as can be
+ascertained they are free from every gross vice and crime and Mr.
+C. F. Lummis, who knows them well, believes them to be a
+crimeless people.
+
+The Moquis of Arizona are the most primitive of the Pueblo
+Indians and are worthy representatives of their race.  They are
+of the Aztecan branch of the Shoshonean family and probably the
+lineal descendents of the cliff dwellers.  Their home is on the
+Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona where they have lived for
+many centuries.  It is a barren and desolate spot and has been
+likened to Hades with its fires extinguished.  Nevertheless it is
+an exceedingly interesting region and furnishes many attractions.
+The landscape is highly picturesque and the phantasmagoric
+effects of the rarified atmosphere are bewitching.
+
+In the early Spanish days Moqui land was designated as the
+Province of Tusayan and was shrouded in mystery.  The seven Moqui
+towns were at one time regarded as the seven Cities of Cibola,
+but later it was decided that Zuni and not Moqui was the true
+Cibola.
+
+When Coronado, at the head of his intrepid army, marched through
+the land in the year 1540, he procured native guides to aid him
+in exploring the country, hoping to find fabulous wealth which
+failed to materialize.  He heard of a race of giants whom he
+wished to meet, but instead of finding them discovered a river
+with banks so high that they "seemed to be raised three or four
+leagues into the air."  What he saw was the Colorado River with
+its gigantic canon walls and wealth of architectural grandeur and
+beauty.  The bewildering sight naturally astonished him as it
+does every beholder.  Think of a fissure in the earth over a mile
+deep!  But the Grand Canon of Arizona is more that a simple
+fissure in the earth.  It is composed of many canons which form a
+seemingly endless labyrinth of winding aisles and majestic
+avenues--fit promenades for the Gods.
+
+The land of the Moquinos is full of surprises and, although they
+are not all as startling as the Grand Canon, they are
+sufficiently striking to make Arizona a wonderland that is second
+to none on the continent.
+
+The Moquis live in seven towns or pueblos which are built upon
+three rocky mesas that are many miles apart.  The mesas are about
+seven thousand feet above sea level and from six to eight hundred
+feet higher than the surrounding plain.  Upon the first or
+eastern mesa are located the three towns of Te-wa, Si-chom-ovi
+and Wal-pi.  Tewa is the newest of the three towns and was built
+by the Tehuan allies who came as refugees from the Rio Grande
+after the great rebellion of 1680.  They were granted permission
+to build on the spot by agreeing to defend the Gap, where the
+trail leaves the mesa, against all intruders.
+
+Upon the second or middle mesa are the towns of Mi-shong-novi,
+Shi-pauli-ovi and Shong-o-pavi; and on the third mesa is
+O-rai-bi, which is the largest of the Moqui villages, and equal
+to the other six in size and population.  The entire population
+of the seven Moqui towns numbers about two thousand souls.
+
+In 1583 Espejo estimated that the Moquis numbered fifty thousand,
+which, doubtless, was an over estimate, as he has been accused of
+exaggeration.  However, since their discovery their numbers have
+greatly diminished and steadily continue to decrease, as if it
+were also to be their fate to become extinct like the ancient
+cliff dwellers.
+
+The Moqui Pueblos are well protected by natural barriers upon all
+sides except towards the south.  Perched upon their high mesas
+the people have been safe from every attack of an enemy, but
+their fields and flocks in the valley below were defenseless.
+The top of the several mesas can only be reached by ascending
+steep and difficult trails which are hard to climb but easy to
+defend.  The paths on the mesas have been cut deep into the hard
+rock, which were worn by the soft tread of moccasined feet during
+centuries of travel, numbering, perhaps, several times the four
+hundred years that are known to history.
+
+The houses are built of stone and mortar, and rise in terraces
+from one to five stories high, back from a street or court to a
+sheer wall.  Some of the remodeled and newly built houses have
+modern doors and windows.  The upper stories are reached from the
+outside by ladders and stone stairways built into the walls.  The
+rooms are smoothly plastered and whitewashed and the houses are
+kept tidy and clean, but the streets are dirty and unsanitary.
+
+In these sky cities the Moquis live a retired life that is well
+suited to their quiet dispositions, love of home life and
+tireless industry.  The men are kind, the women virtuous and the
+children obedient.  Indeed, the children are unusually well
+behaved.  They seldom quarrel or cry, and a spoiled child cannot
+be found among them.  The Moquis love peace, and never fight
+among themselves.  If a dispute occurs it is submitted to a peace
+council of old men, whose decision is final and obeyed without a
+murmur.
+
+They are shy and suspicious of strangers, but if addressed by the
+magic word lolomi, their reserve is instantly gone.  It is the
+open sesame to their hearts and homes, and after that the house
+contains nothing too good to bestow upon the welcome guest.  They
+are true children of nature, and have not yet become corrupted by
+the vices of white civilization.  The worst thing they do is that
+the men smoke tobacco.
+
+Their industries are few, but afford sufficient income to provide
+for their modest needs.  They are primarily tillers of the soil,
+and as agriculturists succeed under circumstances that would
+wholly baffle and discourage an eastern farmer.  Several years
+ago a man was sent out from Washington to teach the Moquis
+agriculture, but before a year had passed the teacher had to buy
+corn from the Indians.  They make baskets and pottery, weave
+cloth and dress skins for their own use and to barter in trade
+with their neighbors.  They like silver and have skilled workmen
+who make the white metal into beads and buttons and various
+trinkets for personal adornment.  They care nothing for gold, and
+silver is their only money.  Chalchihuitl is their favorite gem
+and to own a turquoise stone is regarded as an  omen of good
+fortune to the happy possessor.
+
+Just how the Spaniards got the notion that the Moquis loved gold
+and possessed vast stores of that precious metal is not apparent
+unless it be, as Bandelier suggests, that it originated in the
+myth of the El Dorado, or Gilded Man.[9] The story started at
+Lake Guatanita in Bogota, and traveled north to Quivera, but the
+wealth that the Spaniards sought they never found.  Their journey
+led them over deserts that gave them but little food and only a
+meager supply of water, and ended in disaster.
+
+[9] The Gilded Man, by A. F. Bandelier, 1893.
+
+
+The mesas are all rock and utterly barren, and their supplies are
+all brought from a distance over difficult trails.  The water is
+carried in ollas by the women from springs at the foot of the
+mesa; wood is packed on burros from distant forests; and corn,
+melons and peaches are brought home by the men when they return
+from their work in the fields.  A less active and industrious
+people, under similar circumstances, would soon starve to death,
+but the Moquis are self-supporting and have never asked nor
+received any help from Uncle Sam.
+
+In the early morning the public crier proclaims in stentorian
+tones from the housetop the program for the day, which sends
+everyone to his daily task.  They are inured to labor and do not
+count work as a hardship.  It is only by incessant toil that they
+succeed at all in earning a living with the scanty resources at
+their command, and the only surprise is that they succeed so
+well.  There is scarcely an hour during the day or night that men
+and women are not either coming or going on some errand to
+provision the home.
+
+The men travel many miles every day going to and from their work
+in the fields.  If a man owns a burro he sometimes rides, but
+usually prefers to walk.  What the burro does not pack, the man
+carries on his back.  He often sings at his work, just as the
+white man does in any farming community, and his song sounds
+good.
+
+The burro is the common carrier and, because of his sterling
+qualities, is a prime favorite in all of the pueblos.  If he has
+any faults they are all condoned except one, that of theft.  If
+he is caught eating in a corn field he is punished as a thief by
+having one of his ears cut off; and if the offense is repeated he
+loses his other ear in the same manner.
+
+The area of tillable land is limited and is found only in small
+patches, which cause the farms to be widely scattered.  The soil
+is mostly sand which the wind drifts into dunes that sometimes
+cover and destroy the growing crops.  The peach trees are often
+buried in sand or only their top branches remain visible.  There
+are no running streams of water and rains are infrequent.
+
+Corn is the principal crop and support of the Moquis.  If there
+is a good crop the surplus is stored away and kept to be used in
+the future should a crop fail.  The corn is planted in irregular
+hills and cultivated with a hoe.  It is dropped into deep holes
+made with a stick and covered up.  There is always enough
+moisture in the sand to sprout the seed which, aided by an
+occasional shower, causes it to grow and mature a crop.  The corn
+is of a hardy, native variety that needs but little water to make
+it grow.  The grain is small and hard like popcorn and ripens in
+several colors.
+
+It is carried home from the field by the men, and ground into
+meal by the women.  The sound of the grinding is heard in the
+street and is usually accompanied by a song that sounds weird but
+musical.  The meal is ground into different grades of fineness
+and when used for bread is mixed with water to form a thin batter
+which is spread by the hand upon a hot, flat stone.  It is
+quickly baked and makes a thin wafer that is no thicker than
+paper.  When done it is removed from the stone by the naked hand
+and is rolled or folded into loaves which makes their prized pici
+bread.  It is said to be only one of fifty different methods
+which the Moquis have of preparing corn for the table, or about
+twice the number of styles known to any modern chef.
+
+The Moqui woman is favored above many of her sex who live in
+foreign lands.  As a child she receives much attention and toys
+galore, as the parents are very fond of their children and devote
+much time to their amusement.  They make dolls of their Katcinas
+which are given to the children to play with.  A Katcina is the
+emblem of a deity that is represented either in the form of a
+doll carved out of wood, woven into a plaque or basket, or
+painted on tiles and pottery.  There are between three and four
+hundred Katcina dolls each one representing a different divinity.
+When a doll is given to a child it is taught what it means, thus
+combining instruction with amusement.  The method is a perfect
+system of kindergarten teaching, which the Moquis invented and
+used centuries before the idea occurred to Froebel.
+
+When the girl is ten years old her education properly begins and
+she is systematically inducted into the mysteries of
+housekeeping.  At fifteen she has completed her curriculum and
+can cook, bake, sew, dye, spin and weave and is, indeed,
+graduated in all the accomplishments of the finished Moqui
+maiden.  She now does up her hair in two large coils or whorls,
+one on each side of the head, which is meant to resemble a
+full-blown squash blossom and signifies that the wearer is of
+marriageable age and in the matrimonial market.  It gives her a
+striking yet not unbecoming appearance, and, if her style of
+coiffure were adopted by modern fashion it would be something
+unusually attractive.  As represented by Donaldson in the
+eleventh census report the handsome face of Pootitcie, a maiden
+of the pueblo of Sichomovi, makes a pretty picture that even her
+white sisters must admire.  After marriage the hair is let down
+and done up in two hard twists that fall over the shoulders.
+This form represents a ripe, dried squash blossom and means
+fruitfulness.
+
+Her dress is not Spanish nor yet altogether Indian, but is
+simple, comfortable and becoming, which is more than can be said
+of some civilized costumes.  She chooses her own husband,
+inherits her mother's name and property and owns the house in
+which she lives.  Instead of the man owning and bossing
+everything, as he so dearly loves to do in our own civilization,
+the property and labor of the Moqui husband and wife are equally
+divided, the former owning and tending the fields and flocks and
+the latter possessing and governing the house.
+
+The Moquis are famous for their games, dances and festivals,
+which have been fully described by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in
+various reports to the Smithsonian Institution.  They have many
+secret orders, worship the supernatural, and believe in
+witchcraft.  Their great fete day is the Snake Dance, which is
+held in alternate years at Walpi and Oraibi, at the former place
+in the odd year and at the latter place in the even year, some
+time during the month of August.  It is purely a religious
+ceremony, an elaborate supplication for rain, and is designed to
+propitiate the water god or snake deity.
+
+Preliminary ceremonies are conducted in the secret Kiva several
+days preceding the public dance.  The Kiva is an underground
+chamber that is cut out of the solid rock, and is entered by a
+ladder.  It has but a single opening on top on a level with the
+street, which serves as door, window and chimney.  The room is
+only used by the men, and is, in fact, a lodge room, where the
+members of the several secret orders meet and engage in their
+solemn ceremonials.  It is a sacred place, a holy of holies,
+which none but members of a lodge may enter, and is carefully
+guarded.
+
+The snakes used in the dance are all wild, and captured out on
+the open plain.  Four days prior to the dance the snake men,
+dressed in scanty attire and equipped with their snake-capturing
+paraphernalia, march out in squads and scour the surrounding
+country in search of snakes.  One day each is spent in searching
+the ground towards the four points of the compass, in the order
+of north, west, south and east, returning at the close of each
+day with their catch to the Kiva, where the snakes are kept and
+prepared for the dance.  The snakes caught are of several
+varieties, but much the largest number are rattlesnakes.
+Respect is shown for serpents of every variety and none are ever
+intentionally harmed, but the rattlesnake is considered the most
+sacred and is proportionately esteemed.  Its forked tongue
+represents lightning, its rattle thunder and its spots
+rain-clouds.  The number of snakes they find is surprising, as
+they catch from one to two hundred during the four days' hunt on
+ground that might be carefully searched by white men for months
+without finding a single reptile.
+
+The snake men are very expert in catching and handling serpents,
+and are seldom bitten.  If one is bitten it is nothing serious,
+as they have a secret medicine which they use that is both
+prophylactic and curative, and makes them immune to the poison so
+that no harm ever results from a bite.  The medicine is taken
+internally and also applied locally.  Efforts have been made to
+discover its composition but without success.  If a snake is
+located which shows fight by the act of coiling it is tickled
+with a snake-whip made of eagle's feathers, which soon soothes
+its anger and causes it to uncoil and try to run away.  It is
+then quickly and safely caught up and dropped from the hand into
+a bag carried for that purpose.
+
+Visitors who attend the dance are under no restrictions, but are
+free to come and go as they please, either sightseeing or in
+search of curios.  If the visitor has a supply of candy, matches
+and smoking-tobacco to give away he finds frequent opportunities
+to bestow his gifts.  The children ask for "canty," the women
+want "matchi," and the men are pleased with a "smoke."
+
+On the morning of the dance both the men and women give their
+hair an extra washing by using a mixture of water and crushed
+soap-root.  The white fibers of the soap-root get mixed with the
+hair, which gives it a tinge of iron gray.  The children also get
+a bath which, because of the great scarcity of water, is not of
+daily occurrence.
+
+To the Moquis the snake dance is a serious and solemn affair, but
+to the visitors it is apt to be an occasion for fun and frolic.
+Owing to a misunderstanding of its true meaning, and because of
+misconduct in the past on similar occasions, notice is posted on
+the Kiva asking visitors to abstain from loud laughing and
+talking.  In other words it is a polite request made by the rude
+red man of his polished (?) white brother to please behave
+himself.
+
+The dance begins late in the afternoon and lasts less than one
+hour, but while it is in progress the action is intense.  The
+snakes are carried in a bag or jar from the Kiva to the Kisa,
+built of cotton-wood boughs on one side of the plaza, where the
+snakes are banded out to the dancers.  After much marching and
+countermarching about the plaza, chanting weird songs and shaking
+rattles, the column of snake priests, dressed in a fantastic garb
+of paint, fur and feathers, halts in front of the Kisa and breaks
+up into groups of three.
+
+The carrier takes a snake from the Kisa puts it in his mouth, and
+carries it there while dancing.  Some of the more ambitious young
+men will carry two or more of the smaller snakes at the same
+time.  The hugger throws his left arm over the shoulder of the
+carrier and with his right hand fans the snake with his feather
+whip.  The gatherer follows after and picks up the snakes as they
+fall to the ground.
+
+After the snakes have all been danced they are thrown into a heap
+and sprinkled with sacred corn meal by the young women.  The
+scattering of the meal is accompanied by a shower of spittle from
+the spectators, who are stationed on, convenient roofs and
+ladders viewing the ceremony.  Fleet runners now catch up the
+snakes in handfuls and dash off in an exciting race over the mesa
+and down rocky trails to the plains below where the snakes are
+returned unharmed to their native haunts.
+
+While the men are away disposing of the reptiles the women carry
+out large ollas, or jars, filled with a black liquid, which is
+the snake medicine that is used in the final act of purification
+by washing.  When the men return to the mesa they remove their
+regalias and proceed to drink of the snake medicine which acts as
+an emetic.  With the remainder of the concoction, and assisted by
+the women, they wash their bodies free from paint.  After the men
+are all washed and puked they re-enter the Kiva, where the long
+fast is broken by a feast and the formal ceremonies of the snake
+dance are ended.
+
+The snake dance is annually witnessed by many visitors who gather
+from different sections of the country and even foreign lands.
+As there are no hotels to entertain guests every visitor must
+provide his own outfit for conveyance, eating and sleeping.  Even
+water is scarce.  Local springs barely furnish enough water to
+supply the native population; and when the number of people to be
+supplied is increased from one to two hundred by the visitors who
+attend the dance, the water question becomes a serious problem.
+
+On the lower portion of the road which leads up from the spring
+to the gap at Walpi on the first mesa, the trail is over drifted
+sand which makes difficult walking.  To remedy this defect in the
+trail, a path has been made of flat stones laid in the sand,
+which shows that the Moquis are quick to recognize and utilize an
+advantage that contributes to their convenience and comfort.
+
+The Santa Fe Pacific is the nearest railroad, which runs about
+one hundred miles south of the Moqui villages.  The tourist can
+secure transportation at reasonable rates of local liverymen
+either from Holbrook, Winslow, Canon Diablo or Flagstaff.  The
+trip makes an enjoyable outing that is full of interest and
+instruction from start to finish.
+
+Some years ago the government, through its agents, began to
+civilize and Christianize these Indians and established a school
+at Keam's Canon, nine miles east of the first mesa, for that
+purpose.  When the school was opened the requisition for a
+specified number of children from each pueblo was not filled
+until secured by force.  As free citizens of the United States,
+being such by the treaty made with Mexico in 1848 and, indeed,
+already so under a system of self-government superior to our own
+and established long before Columbus discovered America, they
+naturally resented any interference in their affairs but, being
+in the minority and overpowered, had to submit.
+
+When the object of the school was explained to them, they
+consented to receive secular instructions but objected to any
+religious teaching.  They asked to have schools opened in the
+pueblos on the plan of our public schools where the children
+could attend during the day and return home at night, and their
+home life be not broken up, but their prayer was denied.
+
+The reservation school was opened for the purpose of instructing
+the Moqui children in civilization, but the results obtained have
+not been entirely satisfactory.  The methods employed for
+enforcing discipline have been unnecessarily severe and have
+given dissatisfaction.  As recently as the year 1903 the children
+of this inoffensive and harmless people were forcibly taken from
+their homes and put into the schools.  The time selected for
+doing the dastardly deed was during the night in midwinter when
+the weather was cold and the ground covered with snow.  Under the
+orders of the superintendent the reservation police made the raid
+without warning or warrant of any kind.  While the people slept,
+the police entered their houses, dragged the little children from
+their comfortable beds and drove them naked out into the snow and
+cold, where they were rounded up and herded like cattle.
+
+The indignity and outrage of this and other similar acts have
+embittered the Moquis until they have lost what little respect
+they ever had for Christianity and civilization.  The policy of
+the government is to make them do whatever they do not want to
+do, to break up the family and scatter its members.  The
+treatment has created two factions among the Moquis known as the
+"hostiles" who are only hostile in opposing oppression and any
+change in their religious faith and customs; and the "friendlies"
+who are willing to obey the boss placed over them and comply with
+his demands.
+
+Religion is the dearest treasure of mankind, and when assailed
+always finds ready defenders.  Possessed by this innate feeling
+of right and rankling with the injustice of the past, is it
+surprising that they should spurn any proffered help?  They
+remember what they have suffered in the past and do not care to
+repeat the experiment.  To this day the Moquis hold the mission
+epoch in contempt and nothing could induce them to accept
+voluntarily any proposition that savored ought of the old regime.
+Every vestige of that period has been obliterated from the
+pueblos that nothing tangible should remain to remind them of
+their undeserved humiliation.
+
+They are a highly religious people worshiping after their own
+creed, and are sincere and conscientious in their devotions.
+Almost everything they do has some religious significance and
+every day its religious observance.  Their religion satisfies
+them and harms no one, then why not leave them in peace?  We
+believe that we can benefit them, which is doubtless true, but
+might they not also teach us some useful lessons?  It would
+sometimes be more to our credit if we were less anxious to teach
+others, and more willing to learn ourselves.
+
+Next to their religion they love their homes most.  The rocks
+upon which they live, are they not dear from associations?  Is it
+not the land of their birth and the home of their fathers during
+many generations?  They cling with stubborn tenacity to their
+barren mesas and nothing thus far has succeeded in driving them
+away; neither war, pestilence nor famine.  Repeated attempts have
+been made to induce them to leave, but without success.
+
+Tom Polaki, the principal man of Tewa, was the first man to
+respond to the call to come down.  He left the mesa several years
+ago, and went to the plain below to live.  Having captured the
+bell wether it was presumed that the balance of the flock would
+soon follow, but the contrary proved to be true.  At the foot of
+the bluff near a spring on the road that leads up to the gap Tom
+built a modern house and tried to imitate the white man.  But the
+change did not suit him, and after living in his modern house for
+a number of years, he finally sold it and returned to his old
+home on the mesa.  A few others at different times have tried the
+same experiment with no better success.  The man would stay for a
+short time in the house provided for him, but never made it a
+permanent home for his family.
+
+That the Moquis are changing is best illustrated by reference to
+one of their marriage customs.  It is the custom when a youth
+contemplates matrimony to make a marriage blanket.  He grows the
+cotton, spins the yarn and weaves the cloth, which requires a
+year or more of time to finish.  Since the children have gone to
+school it is not deemed necessary for a young man to go to so
+much trouble and expense as to make a marriage blanket, but
+instead, he borrows one from a friend in the village, and after
+the ceremony is over returns it to the owner.  Even now it is not
+easy to find such a blanket, and very soon they will be priceless
+as no more such garments will be made.
+
+The only reasonable explanation why any people should select a
+location like that of the Moquis is on the hypothesis of choice.
+There is much of the animal in human nature that is influenced by
+instinct, and man, like the brute, often unconsciously selects
+what is most congenial to his nature.  Thus instinct teaches the
+eagle to nest on the highest crag and the mountain sheep to
+browse in pastures which only the hardiest hunter dare approach.
+For no better reason, apparently, do the Moquis occupy their
+barren mesas; they simply prefer to live there above any other
+place.
+
+Safety has been urged as a motive for their conduct but it alone
+is not a sufficient reason for solving the problem.  Their
+position is safe enough from attack but in the event of a siege
+their safety would only be temporary.  With their scant water
+supply at a distance and unprotected they could not hold out long
+in a siege, but would soon be compelled either to fight, fly or
+famish.
+
+Again, if safety was their only reason for staying, they could
+have left long ago and had nothing to fear, as they have been for
+many years at peace with their ancient enemy the predatory
+Navajo.  But rather than go they have chosen to remain in their
+old home where they have always lived, and will continue to live
+so long as they are left free to choose.
+
+The modern iconoclast in his unreasonable devotion to realism
+has, perhaps, stripped them of much old time romance, but even
+with all of that gone, enough of fact remains to make them a
+remarkable people.  Instead of seeking to change them this last
+bit of harmless aboriginal life should be spared and preserved,
+if possible, in all of its native purity and simplicity.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+A FINE CLIMATE
+
+The climate of Arizona as described in the local vernacular is
+"sure fine."  The combination of elements which make the climate
+is unusual and cannot be duplicated elsewhere upon the American
+continent.  The air is remarkably pure and dry.  Siccity, indeed,
+is its distinguishing feature.  That the climate is due to
+geographical and meteorological conditions cannot be doubted, but
+the effects are unexplainable by any ordinary rules.
+
+The region involved not only embraces Arizona, but also includes
+portions of California and Mexico and is commonly known as the
+Colorado Desert.  Yuma, at the junction of the Gila and Colorado
+rivers, is approximately its geographical center.  The general
+aspect of the country is low and flat and in the Salton sink the
+dry land dips several hundred feet below the level of the ocean.
+Only by extreme siccity is such land possible when more water
+rises in evaporation than falls by precipitation.  There are but
+few such places in the world, the deepest one being the Dead Sea,
+which is about thirteen hundred feet lower than the ocean.
+
+The Colorado Basin is the dry bed of an ancient sea whose shore
+line is yet visible in many places upon the sides of the
+mountains which surround it.  Its floor is composed of clay with
+deposits of sand and salt.  Strong winds sometimes sweep over it
+that shift and pile up the sand in great dunes.  The entire
+region is utterly bare and desolate, yet by the use of water
+diverted from the Colorado river it is being reclaimed to
+agriculture.
+
+The rainfall is very scant the average annual precipitation at
+Yuma being less than three inches.  The climate is not dry from
+any lack of surface water, as it has the Gila and Colorado
+rivers, the Gulf of California and the broad Pacific Ocean to
+draw from.  But the singular fact remains that the country is
+extremely dry and that it does not rain as in other lands.
+
+Neither is the rainfall deficient from any lack of evaporation.
+Upon the contrary the evaporation is excessive and according to
+the estimate of Major Powell amounts fully to one hundred inches
+of water per annum.  If the vapors arising from this enormous
+evaporation should all be condensed into clouds and converted
+into rain it would create a rainy season that would last
+throughout the year.
+
+The humidity caused by an abundant rainfall in any low, hot
+country is usually enough to unfit it for human habitation.  The
+combined effect of heat and moisture upon a fertile soil causes
+an excess of both growing and decaying vegetation that fills the
+atmosphere with noxious vapors and disease producing germs.  The
+sultry air is so oppressive that it is more than physical
+endurance can bear.  The particles of vapor which float in the
+atmosphere absorb and hold the heat until it becomes like a
+steaming hot blanket that is death to unacclimated life.  All of
+this is changed where siccity prevails.  The rapid evaporation
+quickly dispels the vapors and the dry heat desiccates the
+disease creating germs and makes them innocuous.
+
+The effect of heat upon the body is measured by the difference in
+the actual and sensible temperatures, as recorded by the dry and
+wet bulb thermometers.  When both stand nearly together as they
+are apt to do in a humid atmosphere, the heat becomes
+insufferable.  In the dry climate of Arizona such a condition
+cannot occur.  The difference in the two instruments is always
+great, often as much as forty degrees.  For this reason, a
+temperature of 118 degrees F. at Yuma is less oppressive than 98
+degrees F. is in New York.  A low relative humidity gives comfort
+and freedom from sunstroke even when the thermometer registers
+the shade temperature in three figures.
+
+A dry, warm climate is a stimulant to the cutaneous function.
+The skin is an important excreting organ that is furnished with a
+large number of sweat glands which are for the dual purpose of
+furnishing moisture for cooling the body by evaporation and the
+elimination of worn out and waste material from the organism.  As
+an organ it is not easily injured by over work, but readily lends
+its function in an emergency in any effort to relieve other tired
+or diseased organs of the body.  By vicarious action the skin is
+capable of performing much extra labor without injury to itself
+and can be harnessed temporarily for the relief of some vital
+part which has become crippled until its function can be
+restored.
+
+A diseased kidney depends particularly upon the skin for succor
+more than any other organ.  When the kidneys from any cause fail
+to act the skin comes to their rescue and throws off impurities
+which nature intended should go by the renal route.  For this
+reason diabetes and albuminuria, the most stubborn of all kidney
+diseases, are usually benefited by a dry, warm climate.  The
+benefit derived is due to an increase of the insensible
+transpiration rather than to profuse perspiration.  The air of
+Arizona is so dry and evaporation so rapid that an increase in
+perspiration is scarcely noticeable except when it is confined by
+impervious clothing.  The disagreeable feeling of wet clothes
+which accompanies profuse perspiration in a damp climate is
+changed to an agreeable sensation of coolness in a dry one.
+
+The atmosphere of Arizona is not only dry but also very
+electrical, so much so, indeed, that at times it becomes almost
+painful.  Whenever the experiment is tried, sparks can be
+produced by friction or the handling of metal, hair or wool.  It
+affects animals as well as man, and literally causes "the hair to
+stand on end."  The writer has on various occasions seen a string
+of horses standing close together at a watering-trough, drinking,
+so full of electricity that their manes and tails were spread out
+and floated in the air, and the long hairs drawn by magnetic
+attraction from one animal to the other all down the line in a
+spontaneous effort to complete a circuit.  There are times when
+the free electricity in the air is so abundant that every object
+becomes charged with the fluid, and it cannot escape fast enough
+or find "a way out" by any adequate conductor.  The effects of
+such an excess of electricity is decidedly unpleasant on the
+nerves, and causes annoying irritability and nervousness.
+
+The hot sun sometimes blisters the skin and burns the complexion
+to a rich, nut-brown color, but the air always feels soft and
+balmy, and usually blows only in gentle zephyrs.  The air has a
+pungent fragrance which is peculiar to the desert, that is the
+mingled product of a variety of resinous plants.  The weather is
+uniformly pleasant, and the elements are rarely violently
+disturbed.
+
+In the older settled sections of our country, whenever there is
+any sudden or extreme change in the weather of either heat or
+cold, wet or dry, it is always followed by an increase of
+sickness and death.  The aged and invalid, who are sensitive and
+weak, suffer mostly, as they feel every change in the weather.
+There is, perhaps, no place on earth that can boast of a perfect
+climate, but the country that can show the fewest and mildest
+extremes approaches nearest to the ideal.  The southwest is
+exceptionally favored in its climatic conditions, and is
+beneficial to the majority of chronic invalids.
+
+Atmospheric pressure is greatest near the earth's surface, and
+exerts a controlling influence over the vital functions.
+Atmospheric pressure is to the body what the governor is to
+the steam engine, or the pendulum to the clock.  It regulates
+vital action, insures safety and lessens the wear and tear of
+machinery.  Under its soothing influence the number of
+respirations per minute are diminished, the heart beats decreased
+in frequency, and the tired brain and nerves rested.  It is often
+better than medicine, and will sometimes give relief when all
+other means fail.
+
+Arizona has a diversity of altitudes, and therefore furnishes a
+variety of climates.  The elevations range from about sea level
+at Yuma to nearly thirteen thousand feet upon the San Francisco
+mountains.  By making suitable changes in altitude to fit the
+season it is possible to enjoy perpetual spring.
+
+Because Arizona is far south geographically it is only natural to
+suppose that it is all very hot, which is a mistake.  In the low
+valleys of southern Arizona the summers are hot, but it is a dry
+heat which is not oppressive, and the winters are delightfully
+pleasant.  In northern Arizona the winters are cold and the
+summers cool.  There is no finer summer climate in the world than
+is found on the high plateaus and pine-topped mountains of
+northern Arizona.  Prescott, Williams and Flagstaff have a
+charming summer climate, while at Yuma, Phoenix and Tucson the
+winter weather is simply perfect.
+
+A mountain residence is not desirable for thin, nervous people or
+such as are afflicted with any organic disease.  A high altitude
+is too stimulating for this class of patients and tends to
+increase nervousness and aggravates organic disease.  Such
+persons should seek a coast climate and a low altitude, which is
+sedative, rather than risk the high and dry interior.  Any coast
+climate is better than the mountains for nervous people, but the
+Pacific Coast is preferable to any other because of its freedom
+from electrical storms and every other form of disagreeable
+meteorological disturbance that tries the nerves.  The
+nervousness that is produced by a high altitude does not, as a
+rule, develop suddenly, but grows gradually upon the patient.
+Those of a sensitive nature feel it most and women more than men.
+After making a change from a low to a high altitude sleep may be
+sound for a time, but it soon becomes fitful and unrefreshing.
+
+It has been discovered that altitude increases the amount of
+hemoglobulin and thus enriches the blood and is particularly
+beneficial to pale, thin people.  It also sharpens the appetite
+and promotes digestion and assimilation.
+
+Persons suffering from rheumatism, neuralgia, advanced pulmonary
+consumption, organic heart disease and all disorders of the brain
+and nerves should avoid a high altitude.  Patients that are
+afflicted with any of the above-mentioned diseases are more
+comfortable in a low altitude and should choose between the coast
+of California and the low, dry lands of the lower Gila and
+Colorado rivers, according to the season of the year and the
+quality of climate desired.
+
+The diseases which are especially benefited by the climate of
+Arizona are consumption, bronchitis, catarrh and hay fever.
+Anyone going in search of health who has improved by the change
+should remain where the improvement took place lest by returning
+home and being again subjected to the former climatic conditions
+which caused the disease the improvement be lost and the old
+disease re-established with increased severity.
+
+Most sick people who are in need of a change live in a humid
+atmosphere where the winters are extremely cold and the summers
+uncomfortably hot, and to be benefited by a change must seek a
+climate in which the opposite conditions prevail.  The climate of
+the southwest furnishes just what such invalids require.  The
+sick who need cold or damp weather, if there be any such, can be
+accommodated almost anywhere, but those who want a warm, dry
+climate must go where it can be found.  Not every invalid who
+goes in search of health finds a cure, as many who start on such
+a journey are already past help when they leave home.  When a
+case is hopeless the patient should not undertake such a trip,
+but remain quietly at home and die in peace among friends.
+
+As already intimated the climate of the Colorado basin is ideal
+in winter, but becomes very hot in summer.  Its low altitude,
+rainless days, cloudless skies and balmy air form a combination
+that is unsurpassed and is enjoyed by all either sick or well.
+The heat of summer does not create sickness, but becomes
+monotonous and tiresome from its steady and long continuance.
+Many residents of the Territory who tire of the heat and can
+afford the trip take a vacation during the summer months and
+either go north to the Grand Canon and the mountains or to the
+Pacific Coast.  Every summer witnesses a hegira of sun baked
+people fleeing from the hot desert to the mountains or ocean
+shore in search of coolness and comfort.
+
+Life in the tropics, perhaps, inclines to indolence and languor,
+particularly if the atmosphere is humid, but in a dry climate
+like that of Arizona the heat, although sometimes great, is never
+oppressive or debilitating.  It has its lazy people like any
+other country and for the same reason that there are always some
+who were born tired and never outgrow the tired feeling, but
+Arizona climate is more bracing than enervating.
+
+The adobe house of the Mexican is a peculiar institution of the
+southwest.  It may be interesting on account of its past history,
+but it is certainly not pretty.   It is nothing more than a box
+of dried mud with its roof, walls and floor all made of dirt.  It
+is never free from a disagreeable earthy smell which, if mingled
+with the added odors of stale smoke and filth, as is often the
+case, makes the air simply vile.  The house can never be kept
+tidy because of the dirt which falls from the adobe, unless the
+walls and ceilings are plastered and whitewashed, which is
+sometimes done in the better class of houses.  If the house is
+well built it is comfortable enough in pleasant weather, but as
+often as it rains the dirt roof springs a leak and splashes water
+and mud over everything.  If by chance the house stands on low
+ground and is surrounded by water, as sometimes happens, after a
+heavy rain the walls become soaked and dissolved into mud when
+the house collapses.  The adobe house may have been suited to the
+wants of a primitive people, but in the present age of
+improvement, it is scarcely worth saving except it be as a relic
+of a vanishing race.
+
+In order to escape in a measure the discomforts of the midday
+heat the natives either seek the shade in the open air where the
+breeze blows, or, what is more common, close up tight the adobe
+house in the morning and remain indoors until the intense heat
+from the scorching sun penetrates the thick walls, which causes
+the inmates to move out.  In the cool of the evening they visit
+and transact business and when the hour comes for retiring go to
+bed on cots made up out of doors where they sleep until morning,
+while the house is left open to cool off during the night.  This
+process is repeated every day during the hot summer months and is
+endured without complaint.
+
+The natives, also, take advantage of the dry air to operate a
+novel method of refrigeration.  The cloth covered army canteen
+soaked in water and the handy water jug of the eastern harvest
+field wrapped in a wet blanket are familiar examples of an
+ineffectual attempt at refrigeration by evaporation.  But natural
+refrigeration find its best illustration in the arid regions of
+the southwest by the use of an olla, which is a vessel made of
+porous pottery, a stout canvas bag or a closely woven Indian
+basket.  A suitable vessel is selected, filled with water and
+suspended somewhere in midair in the shade.  If it is hung in a
+current of air it is all the better, as any movement of the
+atmosphere facilitates evaporation.  A slow seepage of water
+filters through the open pores of the vessel which immediately
+evaporates in the dry air and lowers the temperature.  The water
+in the olla soon becomes cold and if properly protected will
+remain cool during the entire day.
+
+The dry air also acts as a valuable preservative.  During the
+winter, when the weather is cool but not freezing, if fresh meat
+is hung out in the open air, it will keep sweet a long time.  A
+dry crust soon forms upon its surface which hermetically seals
+the meat from the air and keeps it perfectly sweet.  In the
+summer it is necessary to dry the meat more quickly to keep it
+from spoiling.  It is then made into "jerky" by cutting it into
+long, thin strips and hanging them up in the sun to dry.  After
+it is thoroughly dried, it is tied up in bags and used as needed,
+either by eating it dry from the pocket when out on a tramp, or,
+if in camp, serving it in a hot stew.
+
+Even the carcass of a dead animal that is left exposed upon the
+ground to decompose does not moulder away by the usual process of
+decay, but what is left of the body after the hungry buzzards and
+coyotes have finished their feast, dries up into a mummy that
+lasts for years.
+
+Climate everywhere unquestionably influences life in its
+evolution, but it is not always easy to determine all of its
+effects in detail.  In Arizona, which is but a comparatively
+small corner of our country, live several races of men that are
+as different from each other as nature could make them, yet all
+live in the same climate.
+
+The Pueblo Indian is in a manner civilized, peaceable and
+industrious.  He is brave in self-defense, but never seeks war
+nor bloodshed.  Quite different is his near neighbor, the
+bloodthirsty Apache, who seems to delight only in robbing and
+killing people.  Cunning and revenge are pronounced traits of his
+character and the Government has found him difficult to conquer
+or control.  The Mexican leads a shiftless, thriftless life and
+seems satisfied merely to exist.  He has, unfortunately,
+inherited more of the baser than the better qualities of his
+ancestors, and, to all appearance, is destined to further
+degenerate.  The American is the last comer and has already
+pushed civilization and commerce into the remotest corners and,
+as usual, dominates the land.
+
+As diverse as are these several races in many respects, each one
+of them furnishes splendid specimens of physical manhood.  The
+Indian has always been noted for his fine physique, and is large
+bodied, well muscled and full chested.  One advantage which the
+southwest has over other countries is that the climate is mild
+and favorable to an outdoor life, which is conducive to health
+and physical development.
+
+No single race of men flourish equally well everywhere, but each
+one is affected by its own surroundings; and, what is true of a
+race, is also true of an individual.  The pioneer in any country
+is always an interesting character, but he differs in
+peculiarities according to his environment of mountain, plain or
+forest.  Occupation also exerts an influence and in time develops
+distinct types like the trapper, miner, soldier and cowboy, that
+only the graphic pencil of a Remington can accurately portray.
+The eccentricities of character which are sometimes met in men
+who dwell on the frontier are not always due alone to
+disposition, but are largely the product of the wild life which
+they live, that inclines them to be restless, reckless and even
+desperate.
+
+There is no better field for observing and studying the effects
+of environment upon human life than is furnished by the arid
+region of the southwest.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Arizona Sketches, by Joseph A. Munk
+
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