274 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



may be found there under the thorny tangle of a 

 cat-claw or a smoke-tree — shade of the thinnest, 

 yet a valuable relief. While we rested in one of these 

 gullies, Wellson, recognizing the place, mentioned 

 that a year or two ago a man whom he knew, one 

 Walbridge, had come into this locality to look at a 

 claim in Fish Creek Mountain. Wellson was to meet 

 him on his return at Seeley, in the Imperial Valley. 

 "I hung around a day or two, but he did n't show 

 up, so I came out to see where he was. That's the 

 gully where I found his tracks. I followed till I lost 

 them up that caiion. — Find him? no, I did n't ever 

 find him. He'd left his blankets in the livery bam 

 down at Seeley, and he did n't ever call for them, 

 so I reckon he's in there somewhere yet." 



Between Fish Creek Mountain and Coyote Moun- 

 tain is the canon of Carrizo Creek, which we had left 

 when we turned north at Agua Caliente. It is a 

 wild, disorderly-looking piece of country. Hills and 

 ridges of strangest shape and color seem to jostle for 

 place. A low cone to our right appeared to be cov- 

 ered with black clay shards like those near Supersti- 

 tion Mountain. Another hill of vivid yellow was 

 capped with the same material. Others were of entire 

 red or purple. Over all, the opaque sky fitted like 

 a china bowl, filling every notch and curve of the 

 horizon with its stark, uncompromising blue. The 

 crudity of the landscape here surpassed anything I 

 had yet seen in this region of hard color effects. 



Here we made an unpleasant discovery, that 

 Wellson's pack-mare had cast a shoe and was al- 

 ready quite lame. Her spring-halt action had dis- 



