CLIMATE, EVIL BEASTS, SCENERY 113 



bined with the important factor of excessive 

 dry ness. Whether these leaps are equally 

 beneficial to those delicate persons who are 

 not afflicted with lung trouble, and whose 

 duties compel them to expose themselves to 

 the morning cold, is not so certain. To 

 stand out and feed chickens, and direct the 

 starting of farm work, at 7.45 a.m. is just a 

 trifle trying ; although, as before remarked, 

 the most sensitive persons lose in great 

 degree their propensity to cold-catching in 

 this grand climate often to resume it, how- 

 ever, on returning to less favoured climes. 



Let me repeat, with emphasis, that if any 

 person imagines that in coming to New 

 Mexico he is coming to the tropics, he is 

 singularly deluded. But though there exists 

 no paradise on earth, the climate of this 

 section approaches as nearly to paradise as 

 any earthly clime may. 



The winters are short, and though the 

 nights continue cold to cool till late in the 

 spring indeed, often well into the summer 

 fires can be dispensed with except morning 

 and evening after early in March. There 

 are many mid-winter days, besides, on which 



