THE SEA AND THE DESERT 199 



acteristic of the southwest. They are broken by 

 arroyos, which are the beds of streams that have 

 cut deep into the face of the country, often form- 

 ing canons, and rarely containing water save at 

 time of flood. The dry beds of the arroyos are 

 frequently the driveways from one point to 

 another. The vegetation is similar to that in the 

 vicinity of Florence; large sycamores and cotton- 

 woods are common along the river banks, while a 

 scattered growth of mesquite and palo verde, 

 interspersed with cat-claw thickets and growths 

 of ocotilla and the different kinds of cacti, stretch 

 back into the hills on either side. Except directly 

 on the edges of the river there is no verdure save 

 during the rainy season, to which I shall refer 

 later, the whole country presenting the parched, 

 dry, brown character that distinguishes the desert 

 in general. 



Just back from the stream on the south bank, a 

 little way from the ford which crosses it, stood at 

 that time a single adobe house with a few out- 

 buildings ; this with one cabin composed the 

 town of Riverside. The view of the river, the 

 mountains, and the plateaus directly across -was 

 extremely picturesque, and contrasted strongly 

 with the squalor and insignificance of the settle- 

 ment. What little traffic occurs in the vicinity 

 of a ranch of this kind very soon destroys the 

 bunches of grass which at other points relieve 



