THE APPROACH 



9 



joins on to steep cliffs on the other sides. A 

 conclusion is instantly jumped at, for the im- 

 agination will not make haste slowly under such 

 circumstances. These are the ruins of a once 

 fortified camp. 



I wander about the flat top of the mountain 

 and slowly there grows into recognizable form a 

 great rectangle enclosed by large stones placed 

 about two feet apart. There is no doubt about 

 the square and in one corner of it there seems 

 an elevated mound covered with high-piled 

 stones that would indicate a place for burials. 

 But not a trace of pottery or arrow-heads ; and 

 about the stones only faint signs of fire which 

 might have come from volcanic action as readily 

 as from domestic hearths. Upon the side of 

 one of the large rocks are some characters in 

 red ochre ; and on the ground near a pot-hole 

 in the rock, something that the imagination 

 might torture into a rude pestle for grinding 

 maize. 



The traces of human activity are slight. Nat- 

 ure has been wearing them away and reclaim- 

 ing her own on the mountain top. Grease- 

 wood is growing where once a floor was beaten 

 hard as iron by human feet ; out of the burial 

 mound rises a giant sahuaro whose branching 



The fortified 

 camp. 



Nature's 

 reclama- 

 tions. 



