CHAPTER V 



THROUGH ARIZONA TO SAN DIEGO 



September 14th. Leaving Altar on the loth we 

 crossed a desert-like plain or prairie for many 

 miles to the Rancho "La Sone," as usual a miser- 

 able cluster of mud jacals and surly Mexican 

 vacheros, but we did not care for that. We bought 

 and killed one of their cattle, paying four dollars 

 for it; the next day the seller returned and asked 

 seven, which we refused. 



On the lagoon near here we found the American 

 Avoset, long-billed curlew, and Canada crane; I 

 thought I saw the sandhill, but it was so far off 

 I could not be certain; the red-shafted wood- 

 pecker is seen daily, and many small birds, new 

 to me, but not so abundant as two hundred miles 

 behind us. The soil of this country is beautiful 

 in many places, but the want of water and timber 

 renders it difficult to live here; the government 

 is feeble, and desolation and poverty show that 

 better days have been seen. Tomorrow we start 

 westward at 4 a. m. for our march to the Colorado ; 

 how we shall get through the twenty leagues with 

 almost no water or grass I do not know, but it must 

 be done. 



Some of the men hearing the rattle of the snake 

 of that name, in a small bunch of musquit and 



