Flat steps of 

 the desert. 



Across 



Southern 



Arizona. 



CHAPTER XI 



MESAS AND FOOT-HILLS 



THE word mesa (table), by local usage in 

 Mexico and in the western United States, is 

 applied to any flat tract of ground that lies 

 above an arroyo or valley, as well as to the flat 

 top of a mountain. In a broad, if somewhat 

 strained use of the word, it also means the 

 great table-lands and elevated plains lying be- 

 tween a river-valley and the mountain confines 

 on either side of it. The mesas are the steps 

 or benches that lead upward from the river 

 to the mountain, though the resemblance to 

 benches is not always apparent because of the 

 cuttings and washings of intermittent streams, 

 and the breakings and crossings of mountain- 

 spurs. 



As you rise up from the Colorado Desert, 

 crossing the river to the east, you meet with a 

 great plain or so-called mesa that extends far 

 across Southern Arizona and Sonora almost up 

 to the Continental Divide. It is broken by 

 194 



