LIFE IN THE FAB WEST 113 



repay themselves with interest whenever occasion 

 offered 



Notwithstanding the sterile nature of the country, 

 the trappers, during their passage up the Gila, saw with 

 astonishment that the arid and barren valley had once 

 been peopled by a race of men far superior to the 

 present nomade tribes who roam over it. With no 

 little awe they gazed upon the ruined walls of large 

 cities, and the remains of houses, with their ponderous 

 beams and joists, still testifying to the skill and industry 

 with which they were constructed* : huge ditches and 

 irrigating canals, now filled with rank vegetation, fur- 

 rowed the plains in the vicinity, marking the spot where 

 once green waving maize and smiling gardens covered 

 what now is a bare and sandy desert. Pieces of broken 

 pottery, of domestic utensils, stained with bright colours, 

 everywhere strewed the ground ; and spear and arrow- 

 heads of stone, and quaintly carved idols, and women's 

 ornaments of agate and obsidian, were picked up often 

 by the wondering trappers, examined with child-like 

 curiosity, and thrown carelessly aside. * 



A Taos Indian, who was amongst the band, was 

 evidently impressed with a melancholy awe, as he 

 regarded these ancient monuments of his fallen people. 

 At midnight he rose from his blanket and left the camp, 

 which was in the vicinity of the ruined city, stealthily 



* The Aztecs are supposed to have built this city during their 

 migration to the south : there is little doubt, however, but that 

 the region extending from the Gila to the Great Salt Lake, and 

 embracing the province of New Mexico, was the locality from 

 which they emigrated. 



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