THE KANCHO. 361 



pear. Excepting a'pass at each end, it was surrounded with 

 lofty mountains of a most broken and rugged character, 

 covered from their bases to their summits with thick 

 chaparrals and heavy timber, which, beginning with ilexes, 

 ended with large pines and balsams. This valley's surface 

 was naturally nearly level, the greater part covered with 

 " grama " grass admirable feed for stock all the year round 

 and having groups of cedar and juniper trees scattered 

 over it. At its lower end were three hundred acres of 

 " cienaga " land, which though firm and apparently dry 

 above, has water below ; holes sunk anywhere for a few feet 

 filling immediately. Such land, lying as it did, subjected to 

 the influence of an almost tropical sun, produced a succession 

 of crops all the year round. At the end of the cienaga 

 numerous springs of intensely cold water burst forth, forming 

 at once a considerable stream, the source of the Agua Frio 

 river. At the head of this stream my friend's hacienda 

 (rancho head-quarters) was built. It was constructed after 

 the regular block-house pattern, with a " dirt " roof, so as 

 to be fire-proof. Adjoining was a courtyard round which 

 were sheds, quarters for extra hands, and the stabling, and 

 adjacent thereto stood a corral or stock-yard. The corral 

 was capable of containing about a thousand head, its adobe 

 walls were eight feet high and two feet thick, and its single 

 entrance, a strongly ironed oak gate, commanded by a cross 

 fire from house and courtyard. In this corral the rancho 

 herd was nightly secured. 



More than one attack had been made upon the rancho 

 by Apaches, but there had always been in it a garrison of 

 thirty to forty well-armed and experienced frontiersmen, 



