ON THE GREAT SANDY DESERT. 



163 



The savages tried civilized life for a season, but soon grew dis- 

 gusted with it and returned to their former modes of living; 

 but not till after they had set on fire all the combustible mate- 

 rial of the fort, the roofless domiciles inside of which looked 

 cheerlessly over its gray walls. Sad were the thoughts which 

 the sight of this lone and dismantled fortress raised, as in silent 

 isolation it stood on this once blooming oasis of the desert. 

 Prowling coyotes, venomous reptiles, and those wretched imi- 



The Kuins ( 



tations of humanity, the Diggers, now lay claim to those walls 

 which once formed an abiding place for civilized people. 

 Thorns and dry, withered weeds now covered the once verdant 

 fields, which, for want of irrigation, were now returning to 

 their original sterility, and the whole valley presented a scene 

 dismal and desolate in the extreme. 



I give a sketch of these ruins, made from memory and my 



