THE NORTHERN MYSTERY 239 



live-oaks and ferns, and alive with babbling 

 springs, its terrific precipices and lofty peaks, 

 its natural water - tanks surrounded with 

 verdant lawns and leafy trees, and kept filled 

 by mountain- storms all these may, indeed, 

 be occasionally enjoyed ; but its pueblos 

 and cliff-dwellings, and other relics of the 

 historic past the Indian tribes of the Arid 

 Belt, who yet preserve ancient manners 

 and customs replete with interest for the 

 traveller all these are not for the health- 

 seeker. 



The discovery of New Mexico and Arizona 

 belongs rightly to the age of miracles. Ex- 

 plorations of more recent years pale before 

 those of the sixteenth century. Even the 

 tales of American pioneers reaching back- 

 ward a scant half-century, and teeming as 

 they are with peril and hardship manfully 

 endured, while the prairie-schooners toiled 

 painfully, month after month, across the con- 

 tinent lose something of their glory when 

 we turn to trace the footsteps of the pioneers 

 of Old Spain. 



Without guide, without accurate know- 

 ledge of the great ' Northern Mystery/ 



