CHAPTER XXVII 

 HANK HOTCHKISS 



IN two more camps we had accounted for everything 

 along Black Eiver. There now remained only the 

 block of country between us and the North Fork 

 of the Mimbres and a strip beyond extending to the 

 tier of sections worked north from McKnight. 



The continental divide, by the way, runs through 

 here between the watersheds of the Mimbres and the 

 Gila, into which Black Eiver flows. The Mimbres 

 drains to the east on the Atlantic slope of the di- 

 vide, and though the stream vanishes completely in 

 the desert near Deming its indicated course is toward 

 the Gulf of Mexico. The Gila drains the Pacific 

 slope of this portion of the range, and eventually, 

 through a junction with the Colorado, its waters find 

 their devious way into the Gulf of California. 



The country between Black Canyon and the North 

 Fork was too great to cover by end to end runs from 

 each canyon, the method we had been working on, 

 so we camped on the divide for a time at a deserted 

 ranch called the Meson Place, where there was an 

 excellent spring. 



From this location we were able to work the more 

 inaccessible parts of our unfinished block before 



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