22 BOTANY. 



black bed of vegetable mould, on which a heavy sward is found. This 

 probably would indicate, as the appearance of the surrounding country 

 tends to confirm, that water may be had here at no great depth. Indeed, it 

 appeared as though part of the season this especial area might be rather 

 swampy. 



From Zuni south, the country may be regarded as sloping toward the 

 Colorado Chiquito, and fairly merits the designation of "a dry rolling 

 country". Thence south it again ascends to the White Mountains of Ari- 

 zona, a densely timbered range, culminating in Mount Ord, 10,266 feet 

 high, and Mount Thomas, 11,496 feet high. The road to Camp Apache 

 crosses it at an elevation of about 7,400 feet; Willow Spring, somewhat lower, 

 gives an altitude of 7,195 feet. Here the scene was one of transcendent 

 floral wealth. The ordinary coniferous growth, to which we have already 

 alluded, mixed in about equal proportions with Qaercus undulata. The 

 Conifers towered up sometimes more than a hundred feet, but the Oaks were 

 seldom over 25 feet high, but branched out vigorously. The declivities of 

 this range are deeply cut by canons extending out from the centre like so 

 many radii of a great circle. The soil is largely made up from disintegra- 

 tion of volcanic rocks. The herbaceous vegetation was luxuriant beyond 

 anything elsewhere seen in Arizona, and here only was the striking Sisyrin- 

 cJiium Arizonicimi found. Frasera speciosa, Onosmodium Thurberi, and acres 

 of AquUegia chryscmtha, luxuriated on the hill-sides ; whilst in the cold spring- 

 water Claytonia Chamissonis, Ranuncidus hydrocJiaroides, and Hdbenaria leucos- 

 tachys were growing abundantly. 



Though in Arizona, these mountains are deeply covered with snow 

 each winter, so much so as to practically serve as barriers, the dense 

 growth of timber seen on them is simply a portion (possibly the best por- 

 tion) of a belt extending from old Camp Tulerosa westward to Camp Verde, 

 a distance of about three hundred miles. It is known under the general 

 designation of the Black Mesa, or the Mogollon Mesa. It is really an island 

 of verdure raised up out of the more desert areas north and south of it. Its 

 average width is not great. " The Carboniferous strata predominate, but 

 the southern extension is covered by basaltic eruptions."* 



* Loew, vol. iii, Wheeler's Report, p. 587. 



