SOUTHERN ARIZONA 215 



the dwelling toward the canon, a wide piazza, or 

 balcony, faced the hills opposite. This balcony 

 extended all along the front and one side of the 

 house, and the entrance to it was from the steep, 

 winding trail which led up from the bottom of the 

 canon to one corner at the rear. The nearest 

 neighbors were ranchmen, some three miles dis- 

 tant, and mail was brought twice a week to a 

 place known as American Flag. 



The altitude of the region just about the house 

 was five thousand feet above the sea level, and 

 therefore about halfway up the side of the range. 

 Game was extremely abundant ; deer frequently 

 grazed under the trees, near at hand ; and a walk 

 in the canon in the morning often revealed the 

 tracks where bear had passed during the night. 

 Coyotes held their moonlight concerts on the hills 

 back of the cabin, and jack-rabbits and their 

 smaller allies gambolled in the undergrowth. 

 Squirrels scampered over the rocks and among 

 the branches of the trees everywhere, and many 

 birds frequented the vicinity, because of the 

 abundance of water and the growth of trees coin- 

 cident. While the cactus was not so conspicuous 

 in this landscape, the mescal or agave grew on all 

 the hillsides, and at midsummer these graceful 

 plants, with their high spike sustaining a large 

 cluster of compound flowers of a deep orange hue, 

 added to the beauty of the scene. These blossoms 



