length. From the pass named a broad plain descends in a gentle slope to the center, widening to the north, and then swells to the west, rising gradually to the Quijota mountains, a distance of fifty miles or more. Across the plain or mesa thus described and located several trails pass and unite, from stations on the Gila river. The valley or intervale narrows as the ranges near and cross the Mexican line, and in this narrower part of the valley is located the famous Papago ranch. Above it, on the broad plain, were formerly located the Papago villages. They are now nearly or quite all deserted. The famous Cabibi and Ajo mines, considered by Pumpelly, Colonel Poston, Herman Ehrenberg, and J. Ross Browne, who are the best known Americans by whom this region has been visited, as among the richest silver mines in the territory, lie some distance north of the Aliza Pass and the Llanos des Flores, as the plain crossed in coming from Cerro Colorado is called by the Mexicans. North and west of these mines are still other old and rich mines, the locations of which have passed from tradition, but which are known to one or two daring explorers. South and west of them lay the old Papago villages and wells -the latter generally located some distance from the village. The mesa is generally well covered with the black grama and other nutritious grasses of the region. The soil, could it be irrigated, would produce abundantly. At various points it has been under Papago cultivation. Water is obtainable at a moderate depth. Without doubt the soil holds the water which so readily sinks away into its loose and porous depth after the bi-yearly rains. The Papagoes have abandoned their villages and moved nearer to the reservation surrounding the mission church of San Xavier del Bac, about thirty miles south of Tucson. A few Mexicans are found yet in the ruined adobe hamlets of Fresnal, Cholla, Saguara, Tecolote, Santa Rosa, Saucito, Cojeta, Corral and Pirigua. In the eastern portion of the Papagueria the country is more thickly covered with a low growth of mesquite and palo-verde brush, above which looms a perfect forest of the columna saquara. East of the Baboquivari its character changes-plains are cut by deep valleys, with tributary cañons; mesas that are clothed with bunch and grama grass, with occasional mesquites. The valleys have a large growth of these trees. Cottonwood and ash are also found, and the hill-sides have live oaks and cedars to make them attractive. At the level of 6,000 feet pine begin to appear.

The ride from Aliza Pass to Cabibi, twenty miles, is over a gravelly plain. Thence south into Sonora is over an exten

sive, grass-covered table-land, brown and sere looking, but upon which cattle find nutritious food. The brilliant moonlight of this latitude and region making weird effects with the unfamiliar plants, and touching with silver the distant granite ranges and bleak volcanic peaks, makes a night ride over it one of the most startling pictures of travel. The dry atmosphere preserves animal matter from decomposition, and the carcasses abandoned by the road-side dry and shrink, but do not rot and moulder.

The notes or itinerary of a journey through the eastern portion of Papagueria, across the Papago Rancho, show the following facts: From Fresnal, an abandoned Mexican-Indian hamlet, which recent activity in prospecting is causing to be partially re-occupied, to the Papago Rancho, Sonora, is a distance of thirty-eight miles-the rancho being eight miles below the boundary line. The country is broken by the Baboquivari range, but all is fine grazing land. The Sonora Papago Rancho lies in a valley about twelve miles long, and from three to five broad. The soil is fine and the water good, with abundant grass. The old Hacienda is almost a ruin, having in past years been semi-deserted on account of Apaches. The mountains to the east and north-east show, on being prospected, fair traces of silver, with a little gold on the first plateau.

From the Mexican portion of what was once a connected grant to the Papago Rancho, in Arizona, is about twenty-three miles, by a road that was more used during the Apache raids, but only eighteen by the best and more open one. From Fres nal the Arizona rancho would be distant about twenty miles. The roads are generally over a country of fine grass. Coming from Sonora there is a bad strip about one-half a league wide, a sort of divide running from south-west to north-east, some three leagues long. Above this, the valley in which the Arizona Papago Rancho lies opens out beautifully. At the lower end it is about one and a half leagues across, protected by lowlying spurs to the west and south-west, and further back by a well-defined mountain range. The altitude must be about two thousand feet above sea level. This valley is very fertile, but has long been out of cultivation. The place is now deserted. Remains of former cultivation are apparent to the north of the old hacienda ruins, and on the eastern side of the valley. Wild oats and other grain are found growing about the old corral. There are several wells here, and at the time of the visit described these were nearly full; that is, to within four or five feet of the surface. These were designed for stock, if

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the small stream that passes through the valley should fail, or Apaches surrounded the hacienda. All along this road, through the valley and in the two valleys east of it to the famous Ajo copper mines to the north-west, as also on the Llanos des Flores to the north-east, wells are sunk a work evidently done at least one hundred years ago, and probably under the direction of the Jesuits, who had control of the Papagoes. Remains of ditches, and in three places a connected drain or canal, are to be found, proving that water was more than abundant. In the walls of the old corral, and also in those of an adobe shed, were found sugar-cane stalks embedded in the clay just under the roof timber, proving that cane must have been grown at this point. There are still to be seen ruins of a mission or mission depot about half a league to the northward of the old hacienda. The valley could itself support a large population, and must ere long be again brought under cultivation, as the increasing activity of mining interests will demand that this should be done. It is probably the finest site for an agricultural and pastoral colony to be found in the whole Gadsden purchase. Thousands of cattle could be fed here all the year round. It probably fed in the old days of the Spanish rule one-half at least of the Pimeria Alta, as the country between Altar and the Gila river, in the Intendancy of Sonora, was called. It is the opinion of the few Americans who know this region thoroughly that beeves and grain were sent from the Papago Rancho valley, here described, to the missions south even of Altar, and also to the great chain that extended west and south-west to the Gulf of California-the sea of Cortez, as it was once termed. The region, though now utterly desolate, still forms an oasis in the midst of the gravelly, arid mesas and volcanic plains amid which, to the north and west, it is set like a gem.

There are abundant evidences of minerals in the neighboring ranges, and some proofs of old workings also. Forty miles north are the old Ortega mines. The road passes mostly through a broad valley, but higher and dryer than that in which the Papago hacienda is situated. It is excellent, however, for stock. The Mexicans have used these roads for many generations. The famous Ajo copper mines lie to the north-west, nearly 100 miles. Through the valley, which might perhaps with propriety be named the Baboquivari, from the mountain range to the east, which forms its boundary on that side, must pass a great traffic. Passing directly west of it, the country everywhere grows wilder, and the trials are dangerous to man and

beast, owing to the arid desert over which, from San Domingo on the Sonora line to Gila city, near Yuma, on that river, they pass. Grass is poor and water often very insufficient, with long stretches without any being found.

Very few Americans have crossed this inhospitable and arid region. It has often been penetrated, but seldom traversed. The Mexicans of the border, gambrusinos, robbers of the miners, are not unfrequent visitors thereto. Since Pumpelly's journey in 1861, the region under review has been lonelier than ever. Pumpelly's route to the Gila, and thence "inside," was to the west of the Papago villages. These he visited in company with Colonel Poston and Mr. Washburn, both connected then with the mining enterprise in whose employ as engineer Mr. Pumpelly was at the time. The evidences of compara tively recent volcanic activity are not confined to the northern portion of the territory. The entire breadth of the Papagueria plateau is traversed by regular lava beds, and long, low ranges of cones, down the mouths of which the traveler almost looks.

CHAPTER IX.

THE BABACOMORI AND EAST.

EAST TO APACHE PASS. SOUTH FROM THE OVERLAND ROAD. THE CIENAGA. CAMP CRITTENDEN. CAMP WALLEN AND THE BABACOMORI RANCH. CAMP HUACHUCA AND MOUNTAIN. THE DRAGOON SPRING ROUTE. CHIRICAHUAS. THE ARIVAIPA CANON, ETC.

THE

The region to the east and south-east of Tucson is not widely known, though portions of it have been continually travelled by the overland stages before the secession war, and since the more permanent reopening of the Territory, consequent upon the reduction of the Apaches.

The country between Tucson and the Apache Pass, except that portion of the Cienaga over which the traveller passes before reaching the San Pedro, is decidedly uninteresting and dreary. The landscape, though on a huge scale, has a marked similarity. The peaks of the Santa Rita are purple in the glowing southern distance. The rugged, bare San Catalinas are gray and bald in the hazy west. The wondrous tones of the haze that rests on the far outlines form a deep contrast to the gray alkali plain, whose dust flies around the craunching wheels of the stage, and the burning sky above, if the journey be made in summer time. To the right the eastward-bound traveller lets his eye fall upon the Chiricahua peaks, and the bold front of the Three Sisters, while far beyond a faint blue line marks the outlines of the San Ignatio range, in Sonora.

Leaving the stage route, and turning south before reaching the San Pedro, the traveller will find himself on a wide grass plain or cienaga. By this route he will reach Camps Crittenden and Wallen, and thus get to the center of one of the best grazing sections of the Territory. He will strike due south across to Davidson's springs-a point on the extreme northern portion of the Santa Rita range, ten or twelve miles below where the overland road crosses a pass between the Santa Catarina mountains and the more famous range to the south. Passing across a high rolling plain, between the northern wing