BOREGO SPRINGS TO LOS COYOTES 219 



gray, were Issuing from the canon and had halted 

 on the slope for a review. 



One of these canons, on the west side of the val- 

 ley, is known as Palm Canon (not to be confused 

 with the other Palm Canon, on the farther side of 

 the mountains to the north). I scanned it with the 

 glasses, but could see no likelihood of water, so 

 reluctantly passed it by. Once or twice paler patches 

 could be seen on the gray distance of the plain. 

 They were the clearings of settlers, but I saw no 

 token of cultivation about these places. If water is 

 obtained, as it may be by deep boring, a similar 

 miracle to that in the Coachella may follow, for the 

 soil seems good, or at least fair, in parts of Borego 

 Valley. 



As we neared the head of the valley the ground 

 changed to coarse gravel and boulders. The ocotillo 

 and cholla took advantage of this congenial mixture 

 to make a sort of devil's garden, to which one or two 

 other choice spirits, like the "nigger-head" and 

 deer-horn cacti, were admitted. Once or twice, in 

 spite of our best care, Kaweah got nipped by some 

 imp of a cholla. Much alike as the cholla and deer- 

 horn are, I found that Kaweah had learned the 

 difference. When a bit of the latter caught him, he 

 dislodged it by giving a violent kick, but if it was 

 cholla, he came to a conspicuous halt and waited for 

 me to operate with pocket-knife and pliers. 



At last we turned the shoulder of the mountain 

 and entered the narrow caiion. Anza's aguaje of 

 Santa Caterina may have been somewhere here- 

 about, for it is here that Coyote Creek becomes 



