ST. XAVIER DEL BAC. 97 
passages have been traversed from one parallel trough into 
mother, and the more open strip of country lying between 
the mountains and the coast has at length been reached, 
‘the thirsty soil usually swallows up so many of the little 
streams that only two of the rivers of Sonora ever succeed in 
teaching the sea, namely, the Yaqui and the Mayo; all the 
others fail to cross the great Sonora Desert. 
After this short glance at the country and the routes, we 
will start from Tucson, and follow the Santa Cruz River for 
nine miles to St. Xavier del Bac. This place is the most 
interesting relic of priestly government to be found in the 
entire région which was once Northern Mexico. Here 
Stands a large church, cruciform in shape, with a dome over 
the intersection of nave and transept. The western front is 
lavishly ornamented with plaster saints, filigree work, and 
P Hars, and is surmounted by two towers, one only of which 
is finished. All round, skirting the roof, is a parapet of 
mall pillars, and above this are other ornaments, which help 
to screen the roof. On entering the church, the roof causes 
the greatest astonishment. It is formed of seven dome- 
shaped compartments—three for the nave, one for the chancel, 
two for each transept, and one over the central space. Each 
0 aa. is ribbed or fluted from a central point, and the 
uilt of red brick: even the little pillars which adorn the 
ops of the walls are all made of bricks, which were moulded 
0 the shapes required before they were baked. The altar is 
' very fair one, and above it is an elaborate combination of 
lack gilt pillars and saints placed in niches. The centre 
f sure is that of a priest, simply dressed in black, with a 
three-cornered hat. This, no doubt, is St. Xavier del Bac, a 
saint about whose great piety I am, I regret to say, grossly 
= VOL. 11. 
