ii EECLAIMING THE DESEKT 15 



they were constructing their huge palaces, one of 

 which we are told contains thirty million pieces of 

 stone, each one of which must have been quarried, 

 and carried up steep ladders in a basket by 

 labourers before it could be placed in position ? 



Part, at least, of the answer is given in the 

 miles of old choked canals, which can still be traced 

 throughout whole valleys, and which once doubtless 

 carried the precious water to acres and acres of 

 cultivated land, where Indian corn, beans, and 

 " squashes " grew and nourished. The land is 

 desert for want of water. The rain that falls is 

 fast sucked up by the blazing sun, sucked up before 

 the plants can satisfy their needs, and therefore 

 only a few hardy plants can grow naturally. But 

 what the vanished Indians did on a limited scale 

 the energetic Americans are doing on a big scale ; 

 they are carrying their canals and their roads all 

 over the country, and where the engineer has 

 passed with his water there orchards blossom, there 

 fields of grain and of fruit spring up. 



There is a pretty story about St. Zenobius of 

 Florence which tells how, when his body was borne 

 to the Church of San Salvatore in mid-January, 

 the press of the crowd was so great that the 

 bearers fell, and the body of the saint touched an 

 elm standing bare and naked under the winter 

 sky. Forthwith the elm produced leaves and 



