6 THE NAUTILUS. 



in the desert. To her it seemed a dreary prospect, but a short 

 trip into the Tucson range with its mesas forested witlt 

 orchard-like trees and giant cactus, the ever-changing botan- 

 ical societies, wild pigs, deer, mountain sheep, quail and very 

 toothsome cottontails, told another story. The desert was as 

 interesting as the mountains, and the weather in winter was 

 summer-like ^\^thout excessive heat or annoying insects. With 

 extra tanks of gasoline upon our running-board, any place was 

 home, the tent a parlor, and auto cushions a mattress. There 

 was no lack of firewood or water. 



The Tucson range, only an hour or so from the city, was 

 particularly home-like. The first day in camp. Cole brought 

 in a wild pig and baked it. With hot biscuit and steaming 

 coffee, and the fruit and goodies brought from town, we had 

 such a Christmas dinner, with surely as good an appetite, as 

 in ye good old days, and it was on Christmas day. And, too^ 

 in a dining hall with columns and arches of living green, with 

 prickers so long an unruly guest would not scratch the var- 

 nish. Our mistletoe decorations were generous, for there are 

 eleven species and varieties in Arizona. Here we found our 

 largest catch in Sonorellas, the rare fern Cheilicutithes pring- 

 leyi and the most beautiful member of the fish-hook group of 

 cactus, Echinocactus lecontei. From our camps westward 

 towards the Silver Bell range, twenty miles away, it was a 

 thick forest of the giant cactus, paloverde, mesquite and iron 

 wood as far as the eye could see. Cole brought in a good pair 

 of mountain sheep horns laid out by some lion or wolf about a 

 year ago, and I dug up a nice diamond rattler the second day 

 out. There are eleven species and varieties of rattlers in this 

 state also. 



We made seven camps on the west side of the range — Pic- 

 tured Rocks, Rattler, Sheephom, Wild Pig, Twin Cacti (Plate 

 I), Cat Mountain and Limekiln. Sonorellas were found at 

 37 stations in five weeks. I worked about half time. 



We also gave about the same amount of time to the ranges 

 west, going as far as Ajo, and then I was in trim to work full 

 time. These mountains west of the city of Tucson rise from 

 a lower level than the Catalinas, Santa Ritas and the ranges 



