82 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



bare of timber, and the bottom, through which it runs, 

 affords but little of the coarsest grass. Whilst on this 

 stream, the trapping party lost several animals for want of 

 pasture, and many more from the predatory attacks of the 

 cunning Indians. These losses, however, they invariably 

 made good whenever they encountered a native village 

 taking care, moreover, to repay themselves with interest 

 whenever occasion offered. 



Notwithstanding the sterile nature of the country, the 

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

 ishment 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, furrowed 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 

 childlike curiosity, and thrown carelessly aside.* 



A Taos Indian, who was amongst the band, was evi- 

 dently impressed with a melancholy awe as he regarded 

 these ancient monuments of his fallen people. At mid- 

 night he rose from his blanket and left the camp, which 

 was in the vicinity of the ruined city, stealthily picking 

 his way through the line of slumbering forms which lay 

 around ; and the watchful sentinel observed him approach 

 the ruins with a slow and reverential gait. Entering the 



* 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 embrac- 

 ing the province of New Mexico, was the locality from which they 

 emigrated. 



