IN THE OLD WEST 151 



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 them- 

 selves with interest whenever occasion offered. 



Notwithstanding the sterile nature of the coun- 

 try, the trappers, during their passage up the 

 Gila, saw with astonishment that the arid and bar- 

 ren valley had once been peopled by a race of men 

 far superior to the present nomad 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 irrigat- 

 ing canals, now filled with rank vegetation, fur- 

 rowed the plains in the vicinity, marking the spot 

 where once green waving maize and smiling gar- 

 dens covered what now is a bare and sandy desert. 

 Pieces of broken pottery, of domestic utensils, 

 stained with bright colors, 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 curi- 

 osity, and thrown carelessly aside.* 



* The Aztecs are supposed to have built this city during 

 their migration to the south: there is little doubt, however, 



