GLEANINGSoIN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



I began to get both tired and hungry. When I 

 did at length fetch up at the store at Goldfield 

 I was told my road had been wphill all the way, 

 and that, in fact, I was on ground 200 feet high- 

 er than Tempe. 



I was soon at the mining boarding-house, and 

 disposed of a cup of coffee and a piece of pie in 

 a very short space of time. None but a wheel- 

 man can tell how really delicious a little re- 

 freshment is after such a ride. The obliging 

 Chinese cook then placed at my disposal quite 

 a dainty cot on which to take my nap. It. was 

 in a cool tent outside, and, in fact, all the build- 

 ings in the town, nearly, are roofed and sided 

 up with cotton cloth. It gives air and light 

 both, and seems to be warm enough for this 

 climate. 



Jess and Mr. N. came around in about half 

 an hour, and then we had dinner for sure. 

 Although every thing is hauled here by team 

 from Tempe (the nearest railroad station) we 

 had nice meals at an average of only 33)- cts. 

 each. We were told a whole day is needed to 

 climb the mountain and return, but we decided 

 to make the best we could of it in half a day. 

 A large canteen of water and a basket of lunch 

 was all our luggage. When a man said it was 

 still two miles to the foot of the mountain we 

 could hardly believe him. Why, there were 

 those great towering rocksrightinfro'iit of us 

 now. Really we tramped hard for an hour 

 before we were in the trail at the foot of the 

 canyon. 



Let me say right here, that we got into sev- 

 eral sore troubles by carelessly losing the trail. 

 Whatever you do, don't lose the trail, when 

 there is one. in climbing a mountain. 



I told you the mountain always seemed near- 

 er than it actually was. Well, when we were 

 right before it, a column of rock, that might 

 be a thousand or more feet high seemed to bend 

 over and menace us by threatening to fall on 

 our heads. There was something weird and 

 uncanny about it, but awful in its grandeur. 

 I can't tell now whether that rock is straight 

 up and down, or whether it leans out from the 

 mountain. Again and again I gazed at it and 

 then sat down to gaze at my leisure, and finally 

 voted the sight of it alone was worth the whole 

 trip. With its strange domes and spires and 

 fanciful turrets and battlements, I think it 

 should be called the Enchanted Mountain. 



The trail first led up a canyon, and I tell you 

 it is work indeed to climb it, even if you follow 

 the trail. If you get off it, look out. At every 

 turn, however, you are rewarded with new 

 beauties, lofty rocky spires of ever changing 

 form and color; and a little further along, 

 pools of deliciously cool water, in the water- 

 worn cavities of the rock. At one point you 

 walk over a tiled floor almost smooth, only on 

 an incline. The tiles are diamond-shaped be- 

 cause of checks or cracks in the rocif, and they 

 have been smoothed and polished by the gravel 

 that has washed down over them for ages. 

 The slope of this smooth floor is so great at 

 some points that we crept on our hands and 

 knees, and finally we had to leave the bed of the 

 dry canyon and work along loose rock at the 

 side, without any trail for a guide. My plan 

 was to reach the backbone of some of the lower 

 cliffs, and then crawl up on the ridge; but 

 when I got so as to look through the " fins " on 

 the backbone I was terrified at seeing the other 

 side was a fearful steep cliff almost st/aight 

 down 500 feet or more, and only sharp and 

 needlelike spires of rock on the summit. By 

 dint of crawling, careful climbing, and helping 

 each other, we managed to get up at the very 

 top of every thing, except a rock that looks 

 like the crowning turret or dome, when the 



mountain is seen about 50 miles away. We sat 

 at the foot of this dome and looked up. Prom 

 our position it looked like a whole and complete 

 mountain; but from the valley it was only a 

 sort of "knob" on top. I rather wanted to 

 scale this loo; but my companions said if we 

 did we should have to stay up there all night, 

 and we had no blankets, etc. I consoled myself 

 by taking a nap for a few minutes, with the old 

 rocky mountain for a pillow. The sun had 

 warmed the rock so it was quite comfortable. ,ti 



Then down we went. We essayed to take a 

 shorter cut, but several times we were brought 

 to a standstill by a precipice straight down, right 

 in our path, and then we went back and tried 

 another route. I slipped once and barked my 

 shins; then I got a cactus, with its spines, into 

 the other leg and in one arm. These cactus 

 spines are barbed like a fish-hook. They go 

 into the flesh very easily; but if you try to pull 

 them out, "Ouch I" It is really worse than a 

 bee-sting if you try to draw ihem out slowly. 

 If you jerk them out quickly, however, it is 

 much better; but each spine leaves an ugly 

 wound. The ball of spines looks like a chest- 

 nut-burr, but they are larger. Twice the spines 

 went clear through the leather of my boot, and 

 pricked my feet. Jess sat down on one while 

 sliding down the rocks. He said I shouldn't 

 tell. Mr. Nippert stood the tramp better than 

 either of us. We found many beautiful flowers 

 on the mountain peak, never found in the valley 

 below; and friend N. found an Italian bee clear 

 on the top. The view from the top, of the valley 

 below, and the mountains on the East piled 

 peak upon peak, was grand. The little town 

 where I am now writing looked like a small 

 apiary of queen-rearing bee-hives. 



This is a new mining town away off in the 

 mountains. There are about 60 hands, and the 

 stamping-mill runs day and night.* A very 

 pretty little reading-room has just been put up, 

 and it is here I am writing. I feel consiaerably 

 bruised and sore from the severe exercise of the 

 day; but my appetite is tremendous, and my 

 digestion excellent; I am getting in training 

 for my final expedition to the Grand Canyon of 

 the Colorado, 2SQ miles distant over the moun- 

 tains. 



PUKE DRINKING-WATER. 



In New Orleans, in Beeville, and in San An- 

 tonio, Texas, the water I drank was more or 

 less brackish, or alkaline; and even though I 

 drank boiled water I had a metallic taste in my 

 mouth, and began to feel a longing for rain 

 water, which I could seldom get in traveling. 

 Later I was troubled with painful eruptions all 

 over my body. My brother, who is a druggist, 

 suggested it was the change in drinking-water, 

 and went to the Tempe ice-factory and got me 

 some distilled water. I can't tell you how 

 delicious it was. I drank it again and again. 

 In 24 hours the bad taste in my mouth was 

 gone, and in another day the eruptions began 

 to disappear, and now they are all gone. A 

 large canteen of this pure water was carried up 

 the mountain, and it added to my comfort and 

 enjoyment very materially. I do think rain 

 water boiled, or distilled water, would of itself 

 cure many of our troubles with poor health. On 

 p. 7.52 we pictured an apparatus for producing 



* Gold is mined here by sinking shafts and run- 

 ning out drifts, much as coal is mined in the East. 

 Tiie rock is then pounded up by a great stamping- 

 mill. By means of water and quicksilver the gold 

 is extracted. We found abandoned mines, holes of 

 all sizes all over the valley and up the sides of the 

 mountain. No one knows how much the stamping- 

 mill is producing; for If it should get out that they 

 had '• struck it rich," everybody would be crowding 

 around them. 



