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Show FROM MOQUI TO THE COLORADO. 293 sand plain ; then met Espanol with water enough for me and a hatful for my horse. They had decided to dine at this pool, which we found a few miles further on. In these wastes it is only in a few holes, worn by ancient bowlders, or in the more rare limestone " pockets," that one can find water ; and one unacquainted with the country might go within a rod of such a pool and never find it. The boys had only a few pounds of dried antelope and parched corn but all we had was in common, and we rested and feasted an hour. Thence we bore due west to come upon our former trail, and soon descended into a rich bunch- grass pasture at least ten miles wide. Far southward a mountain peak, its summit dazzling white with snow, rose in the form of a sharp cone; and Espanol informed me that from the foot of that peak, there was much timber and game to the Little Colorado ; also, that when the first snow fell on the lower hills, the antelope and other animals came across into this grassy country by thousands ; then the Navajoes went on their fall hunt, and used to meet the Apaches here long ago, and had many fights. But now the Apaches have given up this sec-tion. We soon came to where skulls were quite numerous, sometimes with other fragments of human bones. My companions called atten-tion to the difference between those of the two tribes; and when we came upon five skulls in one place, two Navajo and three Apaches, Espanol said with a grin: " Todos muertos, pero mas Apaches" ( All killed, but the most Apaches). In the dry climate, on that sandy soil, the skulls may have lain there fifty years. We passed this and another sandstone ridge, on the west side of which we found a little depression with some five acres of good grass, and made a " dry camp." The dark cavity and blue mist over the Colorado had been visible all the afternoon, and John decided that we should descend the first cliff and go to the nearest spring before breakfast. We were off next morning by daylight, in a sweeping trot, and in an hour I heard from Espafiol, in the lead, the glad cry of'El monte! Grande agua!" and hurried up to the cliff; but at the first view recoiled. Before us was an abrupt descent of some 3,000 ' feet ; then a plain some three miles wide, led to an abrupt and narrow gorge, 2,000 feet deep, at the bottom of which rolled, in forbidding whirlpools and rapids, the red and yellow waters of the Colorado. Notwithstanding the great distance, so far did it lie below me that in some of the turns I could see the whole width of the stream. On the opposite side was a similar succession of cliffs, red and yellow sand-stone, and seeming even more rugged. How on earth were AVC ever |
