OTHER ASPECTS OF THE MEXICAN 133 



veiled sky of the Arid Belt ; or we think that 

 there is because we have been spoiled by 

 too much sunshine. The deep-rutted track 

 winding between tall sunflowers and other 

 high - growing weeds of the desert, and 

 framing in its twists and turns oft-recurring 

 peeps of granite and (to-day) frowning moun- 

 tains, was lonely yes, lonely, in spite of the 

 little adobe houses set at intervals in the 

 midst of unfenced alfalfa and corn patches. 

 The buggy wheels splashed hub-deep through 

 long stretches of running water or stagnant 

 pools enough wasted, as I pondered regret- 

 fully, to save my wilting corn. Taken alto- 

 gether, it was a verdant and beneficent desert 

 that morning, inhabited, one would say, by 

 a simple and rural population. Yet in such 

 rich bottom land as this, holding moisture as 

 it does twice as long as land at a greater 

 distance from the river, the vineyards and 

 orchards common elsewhere should not here 

 be conspicuous by their absence. Some of 

 this, too, is actually the old river-bed, the 

 Rio Grande being partial to changes of 

 location. Nevertheless, signs of careful 

 cultivation are few and far between. 



