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Show 120 We conld see the snow still remaining in the gulches on the side of the San Mateo Mountains, ( July 2.) The distant hills began to be better timbered, though with what species of pine and fir I was not able to determine from the road. From this point to Fort Wingate the whole appearance of the country undergoes a change for the better. Taking the country with its capacities, for ten miles on either side of tije road, I am persuaded that in no distant future it will support a large grazing interest. At Agua Azul there was still enough water remaining in holes along the watercourse for thcoattle. A good well, too, supplemented this supply. The spurs of the Zufii Mountains, within easy reach, furnished all needed timber, and even on the flat grounds beautiful clumps of pifion- pine were becoming much more abundant. The site of old Fort Wingate ( a few miles to the south) is said to furnish abundant water and forage. Good arable land is also reported there. At Agua Azul some seed of " red- top" grass, sent from the East, was said to have been sown in March. In July I saw it over 2 feet high and well matured. The grass ( Stipa pennata, L. var.) which we saw for sale at Santa Fe" was found growing quite abundantly on the table- land between Agua Azul and Bacon Springs. Associated with it was another grass, ( Pleuraphis Jame# ii,) eagerly eaten by our animals. There can be no doubt as to the value of the region intervening between the two points above named as a stock- raising center. It will produce an abundance of forage, during part of the year at least, for thousands of cattle. Crossing Campbell's Pass, we passed, almost without knowing it, from the waters of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific slope. The altitude of the plain at the divide is 6,952 feet above the sea. Approaching Bacon Springs, we were, for the first time since leaving the Raton Mountains, in Southern Colorado, fairly face to face with timber of good size. The absence of any marked divide at the pass we had just crossed allowed such an interchange of plants that there were no points of contrast in the eastern and western floras. Leaving Fort Wingate for Camp Apache, in Arizona, our course lay more to the south. Thence we crossed the Zufii Mountains immediately back of the post. Our ascent lav through dense forests of pine and fir. The wants of the fort have, however, somewhat thinned it out, at least of the best timber. Gaining the summit, a thousand feet above Fort Wingate, we were at an altitude of abont 8,000 feet above the sea, a fine open, park- like region, with a large growth of yellow-pine ( Pinus ponderosa) and fir covering the hill- sides. A diversified herbaceous vegetation was out in the most brilliant colors, beautifying alike the woods and open grounds. It was a perfect garden of Pentstemons, and among them, for the first time on the journey, we saw the most striking of them all, P. Torreyi. Already the flora had fairly assumed a southern aspect. Arcenthobiums on the pines and mistletoes on the oaks became, among other new features, at once a predominant element of the vegetation. Amid such a wealth of flowers, we could for the time forget the weary, dreary country we had passed through. Good forage was abundant. Descending the southern slope, we passed through oak groves, and finally entered a winding valley, camping for the night at a spring which is one of the heads of the Zuni River. The Navajo Indians had here large herds of cattle, sheep, and horses, all looking as though they found abundant nutriment in the grass of the region. Timber continued in abundance on the bill- sides a few miles south of this. By the time we had reached Pescado, it was again dwarfed in size and less abundant. An altitude of less than 7,000 feet is at once manifested in the country by the depauperate remains of what were, at from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, magnificent forests. From Pescado to several miles south of the Zuni town we saw, every little while, a herd of cattle, a band of sheep, or a well- cared- for field, belonging to these industrious Indians. Along the river they had utilized every foot of the soil they could irrigate, and their crops were the best we had seen. On the table- land, a few miles south of their village, we saw the first fair- looking crops growing without irrigation. Apparently, this point was a center of surface- drainage, and a substratum of clay made the soil more tenacious of its moisture. During July and August there is a well- marked rainy season here. The rain is precipitated in torrents, and most effectually sets at rest all doubt as to the rain- fall in those months. The vegetation, already languishing uuder the intense heat, revives, as if by magic, and presents a verdancy the more cheering by contrast with its parched appearance a few days before. We experienced a severe hail- storm, that, if a regular accompaniment of the rainy season, must at times do great damage to the growiDg crops. In fact, we saw some that weije actually beaten, flat by it. Near Deer Spring, in Arizona, the country became better timbered again, pifion and cedar covering the lower grounds, and larger pi nes the higher. In fact, the general appearance of the region promised well for its future. A deserted ranch at Deer Spring indicated that this desirable locality had not passed unnoticed. There is an abundance of good water, with a strip of meadow- land |