THE PUEBLOS. 9 



contains 10,000 inhabitants, has five hotels, an opera-house, gas and electric lights, 

 and expended $400,000 in new structures in 18S3 alone. Here the St. Louis and 

 San Francisco line crosses our path, the western division of which, the Atlantic 

 and Pacific, forms the extension of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe system to 

 California. 



Could we diverge at this point from our direct journey into Mexico, we should 

 penetrate a region yet more wonderful than that we have already passed over ; we 

 should discover ourselves in the heart of that country selected by the ancient 

 Pueblos as their home ; should pass such fascinating Indian towns as Isleta, Laguna, 

 Acoma, with its village on a mesa 250 feet high, an impregnable fortress ; at the sta- 

 tion of Fort Wingate could take conveyance for Zuni, which Mr. Cushing has made 

 known to the world, or visit the great natural monument, the " Navajo Church," or 

 Pyramid Rock, another titanic structure. Still beyond, a day's ride on horseback 

 north, is the agency of Navajo Indians, skilled in agriculture and weaving. Twenty 

 miles from the station of Holbrook is a petrified forest covering 1,800 acres, seventy 

 miles north-west of which is Cataract Canon, where a stream falls over a precipice 

 1,800 feet high ; north of Winslow station are the curious Moquis Indians, and re- 

 markable cliff-dwellings ; at Cafion Diablo, on this line, is a bridge 540 feet long, 

 spanning a chasm 225 feet deep ; around Flagstaff are magnificent forests, with 

 natural parks, where hunting and fishing may be found ; and at Peach Springs one 

 may leave the train, and penetrate to the heart of the Grand Canon of the Colora- 

 do, twenty miles distant, through a gradually descending gorge called Diamond 

 Wash, and behold the sullen waters of the imprisoned Colorado flowing between its 

 mile-high walls of rock. 



THE PUEBLOS. 



We can take but a passing glimpse of those wonderful adobe structures of 

 the semi-civilized Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, which prepare us for the 

 more remarkable ancient buildings to be found in Old Mexico. Pecos lies near 

 the line, between Las Vegas and Santa Fe, from which latter point may be reached 

 Taos, and several others, less interesting ; while near Wallace (where there is a 

 good hotel) is a fine and typical pueblo, San Domingo ; also at San Felipe, Isleta, 

 and at various other points. To the average tourist, these remains of Indian 

 civilization will doubtless prove more interesting than the modern towns, which 

 are so rapidly growing into importance all along the great railroad. 



At Rincon, 1,080 miles from the Missouri, the passenger for Sonora and the 

 Gulf of California diverges from the main line, and at Deming, 1,149 miles, a place 

 of remarkable growth, makes connection with the Southern Pacific Road to Benson 

 (a busy mining-centre, 1,323 miles), whence the Me.xico and Arizona and Sonora 

 Railroads complete the distance to Guaymas, 1,676 miles. Objects of interest 

 along this route are the mining-towns, as Tombstone and Contention ; the plains of 

 Sonora; the Mexican towns ; the scenery about Hermosillo (1,586 miles), its Hill 

 of the Bell, and lovely orange-gardens ; and the magnificent harbor of Guaymas, 

 whence steamers depart for the lower Mexican coast, and infrequent sailing-vessels 

 for Lower California. 



Running directly southward from Rincon, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe 

 passes through scenery unrelieved by any notable objects, until El Paso is entered 

 (1,157 miles), and the Rio Grande is reached, which separates the territories of the 



