2 q8 natural history bulletin. 



Leaving Riverside, July 2d, the return trip to Tucson was 

 made across the plains in a buck-board. This eighty-mile ride 

 was broken only by short stops for eating and sleeping, so but 

 few beetles were found. Dead and dying cattle marked the 

 road — outlying stragglers of the thousands which perished 

 during the summer drought, offering mute evidence of the 

 barrenness of these vast semi-desert tracts where water is so 

 scarce that a slight diminution of the normal supply means 

 death to thousands of the brute inhabitants. 



From Tucson I went at once to Yuma, which is situated on 

 the Arizona side of the Colorado River. The fort on the 

 other bank has been long since abandoned, but during its occu- 

 pation formed a center from which a great deal of entomolog- 

 ical collecting was done. Most of my own captures were 

 made on the California shore, since it seemed much more pro- 

 ductive than the other. The valley is occupied by Indians 

 who raise crops of corn, beans and melons by irrigation and 

 it would no doubt well repay development by capital. The 

 only timber is found in the river bottom and consists of mes- 

 quite and screw-bean on drier spots, replaced by willows along 

 the water front. The principal drawback to life is found in 

 the temperature which at this low altitude (142 feet) in a 

 river valley, bordered by burning deserts becomes much too 

 warm for comfort. 



After collecting a short time at Yuma, a visit was made to 

 other California points, but as these are not included in the 

 scope of my article, no account need be taken of them. 

 Returning about the beginning of August, I went next to Gila 

 Bend, about 120 miles to the eastward, measuring by direct 

 line. Lying, as it does, in the Gila Valley, at an altitude of 

 739 feet, about live miles from the river, it should offer a good 

 opportunity for completing a survey of the insects of the 

 region traversed by that stream, since it is about half way 

 between Riverside and Yuma; the one is on the upper waters 

 while the other marks the junction with the Colorado. Unfor- 

 tunately the collections were very meagre, but showed more 

 affinity to those made at Yuma than to those of Riverside.. 



