470 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



left last fall some potatoes in the ground— In Ju- 

 ly they were more than as big again as my others. 

 He strongly recommends to all farmers to plant 

 Bome in the fall, and try the experiment. 



I have seen some that others raised, he says, by 

 planting in tlie fall, and they were excellent — bet- 

 ter potatOLvs than he ever saw — very large, sound 

 and handsome. 



He recommends to plow a furrow, drop in the 

 potato whole, cover it witli strong manure, and 

 then cover the whole carefully with rich earth. — 

 By so doing you may have handsome, large and 

 early potatoes. If this he so, it must he a great 

 improvement in the raising of this valuable escu- 

 lent root. Would it not be well for farmers to 

 give it a thorough trial ? — Dover Gazette. 



THE MOaUIS. 



Far away beyond the South Pass, oa tbo head 

 quarters of Gila River, lives John Bridger, a 

 trappt^r of the plains and mountains for more 

 than 40 yeiirs. It is admitted by all trappers 

 that he is better acquainted than any living man 

 with the intricacies of all the hills and streams 

 that lose themselves in the great b.isins. While 

 trapping on the tributaries of the Colorado, an 

 Indian offered to guide Mr. Bridger and party to 

 a people living far up the desert, with whom he 

 could barter. 



The proposition was accepted; and after pro- 

 viding themselves with dried meat and water, 

 they grruck right out into the hejirt of that great 

 desert, where no white man has before or since 

 trodden, and which the hardy mountaineers will 

 only venture to skirt. After five daj's' travel the 

 party arrived at three mountains or buttes, ris- 

 ing in grandeur in that solitary waste. These 

 mountains were covered with a diversity of for- 

 est and fruit trees, with streams of the purest 

 water rippling down their declivities. At their 

 base was a numerous agricultural people, sur- 

 rounded with waving fields of corn and a profu- 

 sion of vegetables. The people were dressed in 

 leather ; they knew nothing of fire-arms, using 

 only the bow and arrow ; and for mile after mile 

 circling those buttes were adobe houses two and 

 three stories high. Mr. Bridger was not allowed 

 to enter any of their towns or houses, and after 

 remaining throx? days, bartering scarlet cloth and 

 iron for their furs, he left them, not, however, be- 

 fore being given to understand that tliey had no 

 communication beyond their desert home. That 

 these are the people that once inhabited the banks 

 of the Gila and the Colorado, and left these 

 monuments of wonder, the '* Casse Grand," which 

 so deeply attracted the followers of Fremont and 

 Dontplian, and then vanished like a dream, there 

 can no longer be a doubt. • 



Months after this conversation with Bridger, 

 I had another with Mr. Papin, the agent of the 

 Ameri-can Fur Company. lie told me that anoth- 

 er of the party, Mr. Walker, the mountaineer, 

 after whom one of the mountain passes is named, 

 and who is known to be a man of truth, had 

 given him the same description of these isolated 

 people, and in my mind there is not a shadow of 

 doubt of their existence. 



According to Capt. Walker, through the very 

 centre of the Great Basin runs the Rio Colorado 

 Chiquito, or Little Red River. It takes its rise 



in the mountains that skirt the right bank of the 

 Rio Grande, flows almost due west, and empties 

 into the Colorado at a point on the same J3aral- 

 lel of latitude with Walker's Pass. About 100 

 miles north of this, and running almost parallel 

 with it, is the river San Juan. Each of these 

 streams is about 250 miles long. Between them 

 stretches an immense table land, broken occasion- 

 ally by sierras of no great length, which shoot up 

 above the general elevation. About half way be- 

 tween the two rivers, and midway in the wilder- 

 ness, between the Colorado and the Rio Grande, 

 is the country of the Moquis. From the midst of 

 the plain rises abruptly on all sides a butte of 

 considerable elevation, the top of which is as flat 

 as if some great power had sliced ofi" the summit. 

 Away up here the Moquis have built three large 

 villages, where they rest at night perfectly secure 

 from the attacks of the fierce tribes who live to 

 the North and East of them. The sides of this 

 table mountain are almost perpendicular cliffs, 

 and the top can only be reached up a steep of 

 steps, cut in the solid rock. Around its base is 

 a plain of arable land which the Moquis culti- 

 vate with great assiduity. Here they raise all 

 kinds of grain, melons, and vegetables. They 

 have also a number of orchards, filled with many 

 kinds of fruit trees. The peaches they raise, 

 Captain Walkersays, are particularly fine. They 

 have large flocks of sheep and goats, .but very 

 few beasts of burden and cattle. They are a 

 harmless, inoffensive race, kind and hospitable to 

 strangers, and make very little resistance when 

 attacked. 



The warlike navajoes, who dvrell in the moun- 

 tains to the north-west of them, are in the habit 

 of sweeping down upon them, every two or three 

 years, and driving off their stock. At such times 

 they gather up all tliat is movable from their 

 farms and fly for refuge to their mountain strong- 

 hold. Here their enemies dare not follow them. 

 When a stranger approaches they appear on the 

 top of the rocks and houses watching his move- 

 ments. One of their villages, at which' Capt. 

 Walker stayed for several days, is five or six hun- 

 dred yards long. The houses are generally built 

 of stone and mortar, some of them adobe. They 

 are very snug and comfortable, and many of them 

 are two and even three stories high. The inhab- 

 itants are considerably advanced in the arts, and 

 manufacture excellent woollen clothing, blankets, 

 leather, basket work and pottery. Unlike most 

 of the Indian tri))es in this country, the women 

 work within doors, the men performing all the 

 farm and outdoor labor. As a race they are 

 lighter in color than the Digger Indians of Cali- 

 fornia. Indeed, the women are toleral)ly fair, in 

 consequence of not being so much exposed to the 

 sun. Among them Captain Walker saw three 

 perfectly white, with white hair and light eyes. 

 He saw two others of the same kind at the Zuni 

 villages, nearer the Rio Grande. They were no 

 doubt Albinos, and probably gave rise to the 

 rumors which have prevailed of the existence of 

 white Indians in the Basin. 



The Moquis have probably assisted nature in 

 levelling the top of the mountain as a site for 

 their villages. They have cut down the rocks in 

 many places, and have excavated out of the solid 

 rock a number of large rooms for manufiicturing 

 woollen cloth. Their only arms are bows and ar- 



