40 



difficult mountains, they have suffered little from wars with other 

 tribes. Their mode of life has conduced to the highest state of 

 physical development. The marriage relation, as has been noticed 

 by all who have been among them, is respected in more than an 

 ordinary degree among Indians, and there seems to be no reason, ex- 

 cept that above stated, why they should not have become a numerous 

 nation. 



The remarks made respecting this locality will apply, and perhaps 

 in a stronger manner, to the rest of the country on the river, and 

 also to the valley of the Little Colorado. The latter region abounds 

 in ruins and vestiges of a former population,but is now uninhabited. 



The remainder of the great area of territory examined presents, 

 also, its discouraging features. The northern portion is much the 

 worse. Besides the deserts that have been alluded to, in the timbered 

 region itself are found broad tracts where the vegetation has become 

 extinct, and the white and withered trunks are scattered like monu- 

 ments over a vast cemetery of departed life. No indication of fire 

 exists. The destruction has been gradual, and an impression is con- 

 veyed of some deadly rot slowly creeping over the surface of the 

 country. Want of rain is undoubtedly the great cause of the evil. 

 Near the abandoned ruins of several of the Moquis towns no water 

 can now be found. This people, though exposed to no contact with 

 whites, have partially dwindled away, and their ultimate fate, if the 

 same meteorological condition continues, can be a question of little 

 doubt. 



Along the 35th parallel, within the limit of the volcanic dis- 

 turbances, much of the country is better, and at some seasons of the 

 year very attractive. After the melting snows of spring, and during 

 the autumnal rains, a more smiling picture of green forest glades, 

 sparkling streams, verdant hills, and wild flowers, the eye could not 

 desire to dwell upon; and, excepting that the surface of the soil is 

 in most places closely packed with lava rocks, there would seem to be 

 a promising field for the agriculturist. Evidence, however, has been 

 collected of seasons of drought so excessive as to render it doubtful 

 whether more than a small portion of the country could ever be in- 

 habited. 



Over the whole of this region and tliat first alluded to remains 

 of buildings and fragments of pottery are found, and this fact has 

 been adduced as an argument to establish the present capability of 

 the country to sustain a population; but there is an analogy between 

 these mouldering ruins and the dead forest near by suggestive of a 

 different conclusion, giving rise to a doubt whether the decay of one 

 race of inhabitants might not have been induced by influences that 

 would be efl'ectual to prevent the introduction of another, 



MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY. 



The mineral resources of some })arts of the country explored are 

 considerable. The ranges of mountains that cross the navigable 

 portion of the Colorado, whicli belong to the same system as those of 



