CHAPTER XVI 



A DESERT RIDE: AGUA CALIENTE TO "SAN FELIPE 



CITY" 



Prospectors' rites — En route for Split Mountain — The cavalcade 



— The campomoche — Bad-lands again — Miners' Hell — Dig- 

 ging for water — A spectacular canon — Gloom at midday — 

 Nightfall in a canon — Fish Creek Mountain — Impossible water 



— A "dry camp" — Kaweah in distress — Horse and master — 

 Tragedy again — An optimistic city — Conversational finance — 

 Feats of the sun — A^ depressing landscape — Approaching Su- 

 perstition Mountain — A warm canon — A prospector's "close 

 call" — A waterless region — Evening luxury. 



LIKE every genuine prospector I ever met, 

 Wellson had three articles of faith without 

 observance of which no day could hopefully begin: 

 one was flapjacks, another bacon, the third coffee. 

 (The second of them I find it wise to abjure when 

 there is a thirsty day's work ahead.) Thus, though 

 we were up at half-past four, the sun was already 

 hot when we started from Agua Caliente. Our horses 

 carried, beside our other baggage, all the water that 

 we had vessels to hold, viz. : three canvas water-bags 

 and four canteens, giving eleven gallons altogether. 

 At one place on our route it was possible we might 

 get a little water by digging, and in hope of it we 

 had borrowed a shovel from our Vallecitos acquaint- 

 ance. Failing this, we should not find any till next 

 day, and the horses must have water once at least 

 before then. 



The best known entrance to Split Mountain 

 Canon is from Carrizo Springs, some miles to the 



