On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garces (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manscript, and ed., with copious critical notes

On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garcés (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manscript, and e - Page 29

330 ALONG THE AUBREY CLIFFS. evening five north, nearly to a sierra of red earth. 18 The Indians who were accompanying me said that which forms extensive forests toward the rim of the great canon, especially on the first level below the main plateau. An oak which abounds in the region near and north of the railroad is the white oak of the Rocky mountains, Quercus gambeli; accom­panied in some parts of the Colorado plateau by scrubby forms of Q. undulato. " The " sierra of red earth" is the Aubrey cliffs, bounding the general chasm of the Grand canon on the east at a varying distance, some 8 to 16 miles, in that portion of its course where it is running southward with little westing. The line of cliffs is nearly north and south. Standing on these heights, the view westward is sublime. The area between the cliffs and the canon is largely occupied by the ramifications of the Dia­mond Creek canon system, dividing and subdividing like the fronds of a fern, and spreading as a whole like a fan, north, east, and south. It is to head this impassable canon that Garces goes easting before he makes his northing. His position after his 9 leagues or 24 miles of swinging around is uncertain. His aguage, he says, was scanty, and there is no telling exactly which one of the several tanks or water holes that there are on this trail was the one at which he made night. It was some­where in the vicinity of the Snow spring marked on Ives' map between his Cedar Forest and Pine Forest camps ( marks " * 6g " and " * 7i "). Some maps mark Pocomattee springs hereabouts. His trail, however, is definite and fairly well known, through the highlands more or less thickly wooded with junipers and pines, conspicuous on nearly all of his route to- day. Barring the difference at the start from that of Ives- for Ives started from his Hualpais spring, halfway down the canon leading to Diamond creek, as above described- GarceY trail coincides pre­cisely; and with the same difference, it is the trail dotted on the'U. S. G. S. map. In fact, I know of no other way of getting