254 THE COPPER MINES TO 
smooth, and contrasts strongly with the foliage. The 
fruit instead of being a solitary head, or ‘‘ button ball,” 
like ours, is borne in large clusters of three or five, 
strung upon a slender stem. The banks which over- 
hang this defile are steep and rugged, and present as 
great a variety of plants of the cactus family, as the 
valley does of trees and shrubs. Besides the various 
kinds seen on the plains, new ones were noticed here, 
nearly all of them in flower. The beautiful yuccaraised 
its tall stems of white flowers, while the agave towering 
above all, with its brilliant yellow blossoms, completed 
the floral array of this wild and romantic pass. Fa- 
tigued as I was with my hard day’s walk, and my arm 
* still bound to my side, I did not wait for dinner, but 
clambered up the bank, and seating myself beneath the 
shade of a cedar, took two sketches of the place, one 
of which looking south exhibits a singularly capped 
rock, standing detached in the cafion. 
- May 21st. A great change in the temperature of 
the air, has accompanied our descent from the high 
plains. The little stream on which we are encamped 
flows west ; so that it is now evident we have crossed 
the great dividing ridge, or central plateau which ex- 
tends from north to south across the whole continent 
of North America. 
Closely hemmed in on both sides by overhanging 
rocks, our route continued along the cafion for five OF 
six miles, directly in, or near the bed of the stream, 
each turn presenting some new scene of beauty ane 
grandeur. Tall sycamores filled the narrow space 
between the walls of the defile, while flowering shrubs 
shooting their slender branches from the recesses where 
