THE PALM OASES AND CANONS 31 



specimens of the agave, or wild century-plant, some 

 just beginning to send up their giant flowering- 

 stalks. Measuring the rate of growth of one of these I 

 found that it gained five inches in twenty-four hours. 



Tracks of bighorn were plentiful about camp 

 every day, and their deeply worn trails marked the 

 cafion walls in all directions. Often at night the 

 rattle of falling stones told of their movements on 

 the cliff-side above. Wild-cat and coyote also left 

 their footprints in my absence. I met here a flock 

 of the interesting pinon-jays, which long puzzled 

 me by their un jay-like traits, as they flew swiftly 

 along the face of the mountain, uttering a wild, 

 sweet, plaintive cry. Who ever heard of a plaintive 

 jay! Eagles, too, I often saw, and ravens croaked 

 from unscalable crags. Friendlier birds were the acro- 

 batic flycatchers and phainopeplas that performed 

 from the tops of the agaves, and a pair of rose- 

 breasted linnets that regularly came to breakfast and 

 made me long confidences in happy cavatina. The 

 cactus wrens gained my respect by the nonchalance 

 with which they treated the formidable chollas. 

 Since the nightingale prefers to lean her breast 

 against a thorn, it seems a pity she cannot try the 

 effect of a cholla. 



A tramp at dawn up the higher canon was full of 

 pleasure. At the point where it narrows to the main 

 ravine the stream became a series of cascades linked 

 by many a circling pool so fishable in look that there 

 was pathos in the thought that they must be forever 

 troutless. As the canon doubled and twisted, the 

 walls became ever higher and more precipitous. 



