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Show WILD LIFE IN ARIZONA. 265 something like a mile, when a sudden descent brought us into a cir-cular hollow, containing half a dozen shrubs and nearly an acre of densely matted grass. At the foot of the cliff was a slight moisture, and pointing to a black rock which appeared nearly five hundred feet straight above us, the guide intimated there was our spring. Every thing was stripped from the animals except the lariats, but how we ever got them up that hill is a mystery to me; but we did, and found plenty of good water, brought down our supply, and remained in this camp until 3 P. M. We cooked a fresh supply of bread, ate a big dinner, and enjoyed a delightful " laze" in the shadow of a big rock. We here overhauled our kit, brushed up a little, and put on our best gear for a visit; and, when the afternoon breeze had sprung up, entered upon the sandy plain, and followed a slight trail towards the mesa. Occasional depressions were filled with yellow bunch- grass, but most of the plain was of hard, bare white sand, seeming to literally bake in the heat of the sun. Approaching the foot of the mesa we found the sand a little more loose and dark. Here I noticed rows of stones a foot or so apart, and was amazed to find, on examination, we were in a Moqui field. By every little hill of corn or beans they had laid a stone, the object being to mark the spot during the long period between planting and the appearance of the shoot above ground. From the foot- hills I gazed with astonishment upon the perpendic-ular walls and projecting cliffs of the mesa, rising a thousand feet above me. It is little over half a mile long and half as wide, and rises abruptly from the plain on every side; around it run gal-leries and foot- paths, winding in and out upon the crevices and p* ro-jecting shelves of rock; and far above my head, as it seemed almost in midair, I saw goat- pens upon the very face of the cliff, opening back into dark cool caves, where the stock' is inclosed at night. Here and there was to be seen a Moqui woman toiling wearily up the rocky gallery with a water- jug strapped upon her back. It was a strange sight. I was thrilled at the thought that I was looking upon the chosen stronghold of the most peculiar race of Amer-ican Indians: a city about which conjecture and romance had taken the place of knowledge, a country vaguely described by hunters, but never by careful writers, and therefore one the very existence of which is often pronounced fabulous. It is perhaps the strongest natural fortification in the world. Around the entire mesa there is but one narrow Way that a horse can ascend, and on that, at a score of points, a squad of boys with nothing but stones could defy the cavalry of the world. The springs which supply the community are situated around |