•JoU llojund the Sierras. 



from Eisteni Texas to the spurs of ihc Sierr.i Mudre are r ipi ily losing iJkmi- 

 wild ami ferooiouo aspect, and, under the impact of fon-ign breeds, are tak- 

 ing on the civilized countenmce and leahetic architecture of the Durham 

 and the Holstoin. The Toxan st^er, famous for years in the cattle tradi- 

 tions of mankind, with his six-font spreading hi>rns and speed of a race- 

 horse, has already become a specter, ami in another decade he will have 

 gone to join his friend, the bull do, in the limbo near the moon. 



The second general use of the sage-bush is to furnish a necessary covert 

 and castle for his excellency the Marquis of Leap. Vulgar people call this 

 noblennn Jack Rabbit, a low and undignili\l name, totally out of keeping 

 with the charact'^r of him to whom it is applied. Tiie Marquis of Leap 

 lives in the sage-bush. It is his keep. His manner of life is that of a feudal 

 lord. He goes forth on expeditiotis, and then returns to his own place. 

 The L-i-aps constitute the largest family known in the blue-books of nobility. 

 The fact is that, unless the laws of primogeniture and the doctrine of entails 

 shall be adopted by then\, it appears that the whole family and tribs will de- 

 generate into a gross democrac}'. Still, from the passing trains of civilization, 

 the danger seems not imminent. A single marquis or duke is seen, at in- 

 tervals, sitting unarmed near his residence or careering away on sonv 

 romantic expedition. As he rides, he rises in the saddle. 



Concerning the other vegetable growths of Ariz^ni. the most conspic- 

 uoits are the cadi. Of these, the name is legion. Without attempting to 

 discuss varieties, I will mention only a single species, and that the most 

 conspicuous. The giant cactus {Cerms girjarUcm) is, I balieve, one of the 

 most interesting objects of natural growth to be seen in the world. It is 

 certainly one of the most peculiar. From a poetical point of view, it has 

 the quality of adding to the solitude of the desert. Its asjiect almost makes 

 you afraid. Under the moonlight it becomes a veritable ghost. The plant 

 consists of a single column, rising with perfect perpendicularity from the 

 ground to the height of ten, twenty, even forty or fifty feet. It is a fluted 

 column of pale green, covered all over with small, white clusters of nettles 

 and quills porcupine-like and barbed. It stands in perfect stillness. A 

 group of them in the shadows of evening are as woird in apitwranco as the 

 standing rocks in the Garden of the Gods. 



I^esides the sage-bush and the cactus, many other varieties of such like 

 half-desert growth are found as you continue your journey. When the train 

 stops to water, you skurry out for ten or twenty rods and pUu'k oil' or pluck 

 up a half-dozen kinds of semi-evergreens. You guess at their names. You 

 ask your learned friends in the Pullman what they are, and your learned 

 friends do not know. You lay them uj) in the hatrack till the next stop, 

 when the same observations arc repeated. The next day all your specimens 

 are gone. Nobody brought anything home with him, except the indefat- 

 igable Vice-President Munson, who is still considering the subject. 



Our course now lay through the western parts of the territory, where 

 we were still more astonished with the brilliancy of the views, the absence 



