6 THE NAUTILUS. 



in the desert. To her it seemed a dreary prospect, but a short 

 trip into the Tucson range with its mesas forested with 

 orchard-like trees and giant cactus, the ever-changing botan- 

 ical societies, wild pigs, deer, mountain sheep, quail and very 

 toothsome cottontails, told another story. The desert was as 

 interesting as the mountains, and the weather in winter was 

 summer-like without excessive heat or annoying insects. With 

 extra tanks of gasoline upon our running-board, any place was 

 home, the tent a parlor, and auto cushions a mattress. There 

 was no lack of firewood or water. 



The Tucson range, only an hour or so from the city, was 

 particularly home-like. The first day in camp, Cole brought 

 in a wild pig and baked it. With hot biscuit and steaming 

 coffee, and the fruit and goodies brought from town, we had 

 such a Christmas dinner, with surely as good an appetite, as 

 in ye good old days, and it was on Christmas day. And, too r 

 in a dining hall with columns and arches of living green, with 

 prickers so long an unruly guest would not scratch the var- 

 nish. Our mistletoe decorations were generous, for there are 

 eleven species and varieties in Arizona. Here we found our 

 largest catch in Sonorellas, the rare fern CheiUanthes pring- 

 leyi and the most beautiful member of the fish-hook group of 

 cactus, Echinocactus lecontei. From our camps westward 

 towards! the Silver Bell range, twenty miles away, it was a 

 thick forest of the giant cactus, paloverde, mesquite and iron 

 wood as far as the eye could see. Cole brought in a good pair 

 of mountain sheep horns laid out by some lion or wolf about a 

 year ago, and I dug up a nice diamond rattler the second day 

 out. There are eleven species and varieties of rattlers in this 

 state also. 



We made seven camps on the west side of the range Pic- 

 tured Rocks, Rattler, Sheephorn, Wild Pig, Twin Cacti (Plate 

 I), Cat Mountain and Limekiln. Sonorellas were found at 

 37 stations in five weeks. I worked about half time. 



We also gave about the same amount of time to the ranges 

 west, going as far as Ajo, and then I was in trim to work full 

 time. These mountains west of the city of Tucson rise from 

 a lower level than the Catalinas, Santa Ritas and the ranges 



