MiNDELEFF) EFFECT OF FRESHETS. 191 



present conditions may be erroneous. This change is the direct result 

 of the recent stocking of the country with cattle. More cattle have been 

 brought into the country than in its natural state it will support. One 

 of the results of this overstocking is a very high death rate among the 

 cattle ; another and more important result is that the grasses and other 

 vegetation have no chauce to seed or mature, being cropped ofi' close to 

 the ground almost as soon as they appear. As a result of this, many of 

 the river terraces and little valleys among the foothills, once celebrated 

 for luxuriant grass, are now bare, and would hardly afford sustenance 

 to a single cow for a week. In place of strong grasses these places 

 are now covered for a few weeks in spring with a growth of a plant 

 known as " fllaree," which, owing to the rapid maturing of its seeds (in 

 a month or less), seems to be the only plant not completely destroyed 

 by the cattle, although the latter are very fond of it and eat it freely, 

 both green and when dried on the ground. As a further effect of the 

 abundance of cattle and the scarcity of food for them, the young wil- 

 lows, which, even so late as ten years ago, formed one of the character- 

 istic features of the river and its banks, growing thickly in the bed of 

 the stream, and often forming impenetrable jungles on its banks, are 

 now rarely seen. 



Owing to the character of the country it drains, the Rio Verde always 

 must have been subject to freshets and overflows at the time of the spring 

 rains, but until quite recently the obstructions to the rapid collection of 

 water offered by thickly growing grass and bushes prevented destruct- 

 ive floods, except, perhaps, on exceptional occasions. Now, however, 

 the flood of each year is more disastrous than that of the preceding year, 

 and in the flood of February, 1891, the culminating point of intensity 

 and destructiveness was reached. On this occasion the water rose in 

 some places over 20 feet, with a corresponding broadening in other 

 lilaces, and flowed with such velocity that for several weeks it was impos- 

 sible to cross the river. As a result of these floods, the grassy banks that 

 once distinguished the river are now but little more than a tradition, 

 while the older terraces, which under iiormal circumstances wouid now 

 be safe, are being cut away more and more each year. In several locali- 

 ties near Verde, where there are cavate lodges, located originally with 

 especial reference to an adjacent area of tillable land, the terraces have 

 been completely cut away, and the cliffs in which the cavate lodges 

 occur are washed by the river during high water. 



