220 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



visible. Below this point it takes refuge under- 

 ground, in the usual fashion of desert waters. At 

 this season the stream was a mere thread of inter- 

 mittent dampness, but in March, the month of 

 Anza's passage, it would make more of a showing. 

 Near the neck of the caiion I noticed a cabin built 

 of ocotillo canes. It consisted of one room of fair 

 size, seven feet high, and roofed with brush. In spite 

 of its chicken-house look, it would make a tolerable 

 dwelling for summer-time on the desert. By the 

 little pile of hay in a comer I guessed that it was a 

 cattle-man's house of call. 



The ocotillo is a convenient material for such 

 structures, and is so used by some Indian tribes, 

 who plaster the walls with mud and so make a house 

 that answers for winter as well as summer use. This 

 mud and ocotillo combination has a peculiar result. 

 When rain comes, soaking the earth in which the 

 canes are embedded, the seemingly dead sticks 

 spring to life, put on leaves, and may even break 

 into blossom. 



Two or three miles up the canon another inter- 

 esting plant appeared — the agave, a wild type of 

 the century-plant. Its circle of bayonet-pointed 

 leaves and ten-foot pole of flower-stalk make it 

 conspicuous among the low desert growths. Deer, 

 bighorn, and cattle are keen for the juicy flower- 

 stem, and few of the plants would fulfil their destiny 

 if it were not for the chevaux-de-frise that protects 

 the citadel. Growing usually in close colonies, the 

 interlocking leaves make an almost impenetrable 

 barrier, so that the inner members of the group 



