138 The National Geographic Magazine 



" Looking down on threescore cross-marked graves 



silts to wide-scattered tufts of creosote 

 and rare mesquites ; and on this waste, 

 with its speck of slow-moving outfit, 

 rises the sun of the fifth da}' from Santo 

 Domingo, the fourth from the "last 

 water." The Gila range unfolds into 

 another labyrinth of granites ; but it is 

 not until high noon that we draw up 

 the sheet-flooded incline (with wheels 

 grinding anon on granites like those of 

 the crests) and pull up the short arroyo 

 to the classic spot of the old trail — las 

 Tinajas Altas (the high tanks, longi- 

 tude 114° 5'). Here, thirty miles from 

 the nearest habitation, and looking down 

 on threescore cross-marked graves — 

 and how many unmarked no man can 

 tell, — we find the outfit of a hunting 

 party (now absent on the chase), and 



after drinking deeply at the 

 lowest basin fare sumptuously 

 on their spoil. 



THE HISTORIC HIGH TANKS 



L,as Tinajas Altas are a series 

 of water-pockets (partly pot- 

 holes, partly cataract pools) 

 worn in the gulch bottom by 

 torrents following the rare 

 storms of the region. The 

 lowest and largest is confined 

 partly by great boulders and 

 granitic debris, and is reached 

 by stock ; 100 feet of finger- 

 and-toe climbing over smooth 

 rock leads to two others, and 

 in 50 feet more there is a third ; 

 still higher one of the party 

 climbs to a fourth, and thence 

 on to the tenth, stopping at a 

 smooth slope apparently lead- 

 ing to the eleventh basin hold- 

 ing water the average year 

 round — "Old the Taime," in 

 the quaint spelling of the Yuma 

 supervisor on a guide-board 

 seven miles away. The climb 

 was made partly to examine 

 the Indian mortars ground in 

 the ledges and great boulders about 

 every pool — mortars numbering hun- 

 dreds if not thousands, some but a few 

 decades old, but most so ancient that 

 the polished bowls rise high above the 

 unpolished rocks around them — mortars 

 recording the visits of uncounted gen- 

 erations of devotees, to whom each la-, 

 boriously-wrought basin was at once 

 symbol of and invocation for precious 

 food and life-giving water. One boulder 

 bore 40 pits in its upper face, another 

 28 ; and up to the highest tinaja rea-hed 

 they are found in corresponding profu 

 sion. Most of them must have ante- 

 dated Padre Kino, who passed this way 

 just two centuries ago and mapped route 

 and " Tinaxa " in 1702; and mos.t of 

 the others must have witnessed the long 



