THE SEA AND THE DESERT 193 



in question. The story is too well known to be 

 further dwelt on here. The adventurers started 

 without the " White God." They were never 

 heard of afterward, and the fable of El Dorado 

 has become a tradition. 



Leaving the station of Casa Grande, after a 

 drive of six or seven miles, there loomed out of 

 the distance on the flat plain, which here seemed 

 more fully to realize my preconceived notions 

 of a desert, a mammoth structure. Standing all 

 alone as it does, the ruins of this colossal house 

 built by unknown hands look out upon an ex- 

 panse of almost desert country as far as the eye 

 can reach, the ultimate view being one limited by 

 the ever present horizon of mountains. As we 

 came close it was seen to be an oblong edifice, 

 perhaps a hundred feet wide and some four hun- 

 dred feet long. The main walls, at places eight 

 and even ten feet thick, indicated a building 

 which had once been at least three stories in 

 height. This could plainly be seen by the empty 

 mortices, in which the beams that had once sup- 

 ported the several floors formerly rested. The 

 roof of this vast pile was gone. Around it, at 

 various points, huge mounds of gravel, clay, and 

 sand marked where the hand of time had dis- 

 integrated and almost levelled other structures of 

 equally imposing proportions. What had once 

 been a canal was marked only by a depression, 



