THE STILL-HUNTER'S CARDINAL VIRTUE. 205 



verdant scar the very topmost face of quite level 

 ground. These are gullies or barrancas, generally so 

 steep-sided and deep that it is often no trifle to cross 

 one on foot. The greater part of them have numer- 

 ous arms or side gullies running in on each side every 

 hundred or two hundred yards, varying in length 

 from fifty yards upward. And some of these termi- 

 nate in pockets or basins, but are generally both deep 

 and steep-sided. These gullies are mostly filled with 

 evergreen brush from six to twelve feet high. Some- 

 times one of these gullies rises to the dignity of a 

 small canon or valley with water in it, perhaps, and a 

 small line of timber at the lower end. An occasional 

 small tree appears at long intervals scattered over the 

 whole, but from anything that can be called woods or 

 timber we are miles and miles away. The ridges and 

 slopes between these barrancas ^re more or less cov- 

 ered with grass, weeds, some variety of sage or 

 chemisal or low light brush, the body of which is 

 little over knee-high, though, as in prairie, the flower- 

 stalks may rise much higher. Occasional green bushes 

 are scattered over the whole. This kind of ground 

 in types more or less varied is found in Southern 

 California, Lower California, and the Spanish- Ameri- 

 can States and Territories generally. Often the gul- 

 lies are so sloping at the sides that they are more 

 properly swales than gullies, and sometimes they all 

 contain a few trees or occasional groves of trees. 

 Though it generally goes under the general term of 

 mesa, or table-land, it is often the nearest approach to 

 prairie to be found West of the Rocky Mountains, the 

 gullies having been so deeply cut by cloud-bursts and 

 heavy rains. 



Though few would suspect it at first glance, such 



