THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 101 



the following natural resources are found in paying 

 quantities: gold, silver, copper, iron, zinc, lead, 

 mica, coal, marble, fire-clay, alum, sulphur, soda, 

 salt, asphalt, gypsum, not to mention tin, of recent 

 discovery. Two thirds of the whole State are moun- 

 tainous, and nearly all the mountains are full of 

 minerals. Besides the above-mentioned resources 

 precious stones of rare beauty are to be found. Of 

 the extraordinary mineral wealth of the State not 

 enough is known, even in quarters where knowledge 

 is to be expected. The New Mexico turquoise — 

 with which ancient tribes adorned themselves and 

 their houses ere the invasion of the Spaniards — i 

 was prized in Europe as the equal of the Persian 

 stone long before it excited remark on this side, 

 though at last so well appreciated in New York that 

 single specimens were at one time held there at a 

 price ranging from four to six thousand dollars. In 

 1893 one mine sold for $250,000, and has since paid 

 the purchaser a million and a half per annum. Of 

 oil, in the existence of which in quantity many be- 

 lieve, the time has not arrived to write confidentlv. 



For that form of the picturesque, however, which 

 appeals as strongly to the imagination as it does to 

 the eye such a rock-bound canon as we visited 

 yesterday possesses a fascination more complete. 



It is mid-May and the summer rains have not yet 

 come to lift the withered grasses and dip them in 

 their annual bath of emerald green. I find myself 

 alone at the still hour of noon. Behind and on 

 either side tower tremendous walls of rock, and far 

 beneath, spread like a blue sea rippling to a fresh 



