SOUTHERN ARIZONA 



237 



Four-footed creatures abounded; I have spoken 

 of the deer and the bear, of which there were 

 many representatives, the former often gathering 

 in large bands. The common deer of the hill- 

 sides was the white-tailed deer, and that of the 

 mesas and lower altitudes was the black-tailed or 

 burro deer. On the plains, where they had not 

 been exterminated by constant hunting, antelopes 

 were still plentiful. In every considerable region 

 of prickly pear, especially in the vicinity of water, 

 bands of peccaries congregated, sometimes as many 

 as seventy-five or a hundred individuals being 

 together. I have seen these wild pigs on many 

 occasions, and have frequently been on foot among 

 them ; while I have had dogs severely handled by 

 wounded animals, or by one at bay, the peccary 

 did not bear out, as it occurs here, the stories 

 narrated of it. Now and again I have met a 

 solitary sow with a litter of young, and on one 

 occasion caught tw^o of the little fellows and 

 brought them with me to the house. Even then 

 the mother did not resent the robbery any more, 

 and not as much, as most domesticated pigs 

 would. 



On the San Pedro, near the termination of the 

 mouth of the Old Hat canon, was a very consid- 

 erable lake made by a fine beaver dam. This was 

 the resort of many ducks and wild fowl during 

 the migration. It was difficult to see a beaver, 



