The Old Yuma Trail 



137 



tary and incongruous, to attest observ- 

 ance of a territorial law by the road 

 supervisor of Yuma County — and inci- 

 dentally to indicate ' ' Tule Well ' ' and 

 advertise the name and wisdom of the 

 last passer (the American horseman) in 

 the feeling inscription "Agua Salada 75 

 miles — go back and fill your canteen. 

 G. O. Taylor." Thenceforward the 

 way is freshened and the mules heart- 

 ened by the year-old trail of the con- 

 scientious supervisor. 



Tule well (longitude 113° 45') is a 

 mile or two from the main trail ; it is 

 now a name on map and tongue, and 

 a caving pit in rock}^ detritus with a 

 barrel of liquid at the bottom — liquid 

 even more saline than that of the Gulf, 

 in addition to its overpowering flavor 

 of copper salts and strong tinctures of 

 sodden insects and drowned rodents, from 

 which even the thirstiest horses turn in 

 wry aversion. In the palmy daj'S of the 

 Old Yuma Trail this was a way-station, 

 as adobe ruins still proclaim ; before the 

 range was overpastured there was a slen- 

 der flora which helped to hold moisture, 

 and the water was made tolerable b}' con- 

 stant draughts and renewals ; now it is 

 but an echo and a delusion, if not a 

 poison-brew for the chance traveler. A 

 league west of the old well and a mile 

 from the main trail there is a high tinaja 

 (water-pocket) in the granite range 

 running down from Blackhead Butte 

 (Cerrode la Cabeza Prieta), in which 

 water may be found by a hard climb in 

 winter and spring or after local storms; 

 but the chance is a desperate one during 

 most of the year. 



Beyond the main amphitheater of Tule 

 Pass the trail winds among granite buttes, 

 sierras, peaks, knife-edge crests in be- 

 wildering variet}^ and labyrinthine con- 

 fusion ; gray and cream, pink and rosy 

 walls of solid granite rise sheer from flat 

 valley-floors of crumbled granite ; the 

 way wanders through a two-mile rin- 

 con — a great natural corral — of granite 

 walls, in which a city might be housed 



against cyclone or armed invasion; whole 

 cubic miles of granite are constantly in 

 sight — yet all this granite is but as a 

 hand-specimen of northwestern Sonora 

 and adjacent Arizona. 



THE VALLEY OF LITTLE LETTUCE 



Eight miles west of Tule Pass the 

 rugged mass of Tule Mountains falls 

 away, first on tlie left and then on the 

 right, giving place to zones of malpais 

 which slope down to Lechuguilla Valley; 

 and here again the ancient trail is a thread 

 of yellow in a field of black. Here, too, 

 the narrow cemetery of the Old Yuma 

 Trail grows more populous, for here the 

 desert is most drear and water most dis- 

 tant ; the grave-marks are too many to 

 note — -save the 30-foot circle of pebbles 

 with a great pebble cross in the center 

 recording the thirst-death of a family of 

 seven who staked life on a demijohn of 

 water which was accidentally broken. 

 Captain Gaillard pictures this " cemen- 

 teria," and adds : " The wagon tracks 

 made "when the poor Mexican drove his 

 exhausted team to one side of the road 

 were plainly visible thirty years after- 

 ward , and at the very spot still remain 

 pieces of glass and wicker-work from 

 the broken demijohn, and the skulls of 

 the two horses." The sun swings low 

 as we pass this pathetic memorial and 

 others on the desolate malpais ; and as 

 it sinks behind Sierra Gila we push out 

 a mile or two on the silty plain (longi- 

 tude 113° 55') and make the third 

 ' ' dry ' ' camp, where the team-mules 

 drink the last of the water, where ab- 

 lution is not, and where the slender store 

 of hay and grain comes to an end. But 

 the blankets are still damp and the night 

 is chill— than which there are worse 

 things in desert life. 



Lechuguilla Valley is named from an 

 inconspicuous agave-like plant of three 

 or four slender straggling stipes a few 

 inches high ; it affects chiefly the road- 

 way and arroyos, leaving the glaring 



