Sa ir 
SANTA ORUZ. 307 
behaved very well. The valley continued about half 
a mile wide, thickly covered* with mezquit trees of 
a large size. The bottom-lands resembled meadows, 
being covered with luxuriant grass, and but few trees. 
The immediate banks of the river, which is here as 
diminutive as near Tucson, are lined with cotton- 
wood trees of a gigantic size, resembling our largest 
elms. In some places there are large groves of these 
trees, rendering this part of the valley the most pic- 
turesque and beautiful we had seen. At four o’clock, 
we reached one of these groves on the river’s bank, 
where we encamped. Fiat 
A mile before reaching camp, we passed the 
ruins of a large rancho known as Calabasa; for every 
large rancho or hacienda has its name and place on the 
_™map. Even after the establishment has been aban- 
_ doned, and its walls have crumbled to the ground, the 
name remains. This custom is prevalent throughout 
northern Mexico. Along the valley of the Rio Grande 
and in New Mexico are a host of names on the map 
applied to ranchos, and sometimes to placés where 
neither villages nor ranchos now exist. The same 
may be said of Sonora and Chihuahua, and where 
there were no settlements locations were given. A 
stranger on looking at one of these maps would ima- 
gine the country thickly settled, whereas there might 
not be a village, rancho, or even a single inhabitant, 
Where he is treated to a long list of names, including 
the saints in the calendar, all the apostles, and the 
Holy Lady of Guadalupe into the bargain. 
_ This Calabasa, I was told by Leroux, was a thriv- 
‘ng establishment when he visited it twenty years ago. 
