232 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
cially as to the amount of sand. During the height of such a storm 
it is difficult to travel, mostly because the sand is blinding. It also 
penetrates the clothing and fills the hair and every wrinkle of the skin 
not well protected, so that it is somewhat uncomfortable, but there 
is almost no cutting of the skin. Sand storms as severe as this are 
rare. 
A 710-foot well at Aztec yields an excellent water supply. Below 
145 feet of sand it penetrated 455 feet of red clay, an extension of the 
thick bed penetrated by deep borings at Gila Bend. 
Aztec. . : 
; Three miles due south of Aztec and conspicuous from 
Elevation 497 feet. ze * ° ° 
Population 40.* the railroad is a white quartz knob that is on a spur 
oe Orleans 1,671 of the Aztec Hills, which consist mostly of schist and 
: granite. At the west end of these hills, 4 miles west 
of Aztec and about a mile south of the railroad, there is a quarry in 
schistose granite, which is crushed for use on the roads. (See sheet 25.) 
Texas Hill, 6 miles northwest of Stoval, is a small butte on the 
north bank of the Gila River consisting of basalt, probably part of a 
dca small flow. Near it Garcés camped in 1775 in com- 
— pany with Anza’s expedition to California. The old 
Population 30.* -«- Settlement of San Cristébal, of which the station name 
is an abbreviation, was near this hill. Saints’ names 
were sprinkled over the country by all the early 
explorers, and most of them do not indicate the presence of a mission. 
West from the Aztec Hills is a wide desert known as the San Cristobal 
Valley extending to the foot of the Mohawk Mountains. A well sunk 
700 feet in the valley fill at a point about 4 miles south of Stoval 
found considerable water, which it was hoped could be used for irri- 
gation. This valley, like many others that lead to the Gila River, 
is not trenched by its stream except where it approaches the river, 
north of the railroad, but its bottom is a broad adobe flat. 
The northern part of the Mohawk Mountains is crossed by the 
railroad in a moderately high, rocky gap at Mohawk. These moun- 
ains are very rugged and bare and consist largely of 
— pre-Cambrian schist penetrated by granite. Con- 
oo tacts of these two rocks are visible near the railroad. 
miles. At the north end of the mountains the schist is 
New Orleans 1,682 
niles. 
southwest. The granular schist a short distance northwest of 
Mohawk, which is quarried for road material, contains veins of 
_ barite that have been mined in small amount. Five miles south of 
the station, on the east side of the mountains, is the old Norton or 
. Red Cross mine, which produced a small amount of rich silver ore 
: many years ago. The rock pediment on the west foot of the moun- - 
tams is heavily flanked by loose sand, which has been blown by the 
