CHAPTER XIII 



A DESERT RIDE: BOREGO SPRINGS TO LOS COYOTES 



Cows and cowboys — Peg-Leg Smith and his mine — Patron saint 

 of prospectors — Legend or fact? — Following the gleam — And 

 reaching the goal — Dregs of Uncle Sam's domain — Anza's ex- 

 pedition of 1774 — A question of fact — In Anza's footsteps — 

 Hell-hole — Alkali flats — Desert cattle-range — A Borego Valley 

 homestead — Devon and desert — "A beautiful climate" — 

 Modest request for lard — Cholla cactus — Coyote Creek Caiion 

 — Ocotillo houses — Agaves — A lost trail — Happiness in trifles. 



BOREGO SPRINGS is one of the important 

 watering-places on the Colorado Desert. Lying 

 near the mountains, it is a strategic point in the 

 operations of cattle-men whose ranges extend over 

 the Santa Rosa, San Felipe, Volcan, and Cuyamaca 

 countr>% and who once in a year or two may have 

 occasion to drive cattle into or out of the mountains 

 by the desert route. These drives are often for long 

 distances, say from Arizona or Sonora, and in large 

 herds, so that only the few spots that furnish abun- 

 dant water are of service for resting and watering 

 the stock. Borego Springs makes a convenient one- 

 day stage before entering or leaving the mountains. 

 When I was camping here with some friends on 

 another occasion, we were disturbed in the middle 

 of the night by the arrival of a "bunch" ^ of cattle 



^ Nicety is observed in the West as to the use of nouns of number. 

 Thus, it is a band of horses or of sheep, but a bunch of cattle, of steers, 

 of yearlings, or whatever the case may be. A concourse of hogs, those 

 flower-like quadrupeds, also are properly spoken of as a bouquet. So, 

 by the by, are fellows. Thus, the leader of a college prayer-meeting 

 has been known to open his petition, "We come, a bunch of fel- 

 lows — " etc. 



