92 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. II. 



does not at all impress one as being a desert, for in the rainy season, 

 which is in July and August, the surface is covered by a considerable 

 growth of grass and other plants among the sage brush and different 

 kinds of cacti which are always present at all seasons. In and among 

 these clumps of bushes and hardy plants, can be found, close to the 

 ground, a large number of flowers of apparently two Kinds, one having 

 a yellow and the other an orange blossom. Upon this desert there is 

 no drifting sand, at least not in the region near the San Francisco 

 Mountains, but the surface is covered by a long and more or less level 

 stretch of bare limestone rock, which is broken up into many fragments. 

 Here and there the rock is buried beneath the dry beds of rivers which 

 flow only after showers, and are then apt to be dangerous torrents. 

 Throughout most of the year these streams are completely dry and 

 their beds are winding stretches of sand. All this region of mountain 

 and desert was once the home of the Havasupai Indians who were 

 driven here from points farther eastward on the banks of the Little 

 Colorado. Their present home is in the depths of Cataract Canyon, 

 an almost inaccessible branch of the Grand Canyon. 



A little way out on the desert at a place bearing the cheerful name 

 of Deadman's Wash we encountered a violent thunder storm which 

 suddenly came up from behind the San Francisco Mountains and in a 

 short time cleared away. It does not rain often upon the desert, but 

 when a shower does visit this region, it is of great intensity. In a 

 short time the various dry beds of the streams were filled with water, 

 and it was decided that it would be better not to attempt to proceed 

 farther. We therefore returned to Flagstaff. 



Flagstaff' is the center from which a number of interesting scenic 

 points are reached. About five miles south and east of the city is a 

 remarkable sink hole, known as the Bottomless Pit, where a stream of 

 considerable size flows into a cavity in the Kaibab limestone and dis- 

 appears from view. It is known to emerge in the depths of Walnut 

 Canyon five miles further to the south. This canyon has been set aside 

 as a National Monument, on account of the group of cliff dwellings 

 which is found along its walls. These stone houses are built under 

 overhanging ledges of limestone, a considerable distance above the 

 stream bed. The ledges themselves are due to variations in hardness 

 of the different layers of the limestone, the soft ones weathering away 

 leaving the hard beds as projections. One soft bed in particular has 

 weathered out along both sides of the canyon and made an excellent 

 site for rock-sheltered houses of this kind. It has been estimated that 



