186 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
Palmer, “is a splendid meadow, ten miles in width, lying — 
between the Aztec Range and Black Mountains on the south 
and west, and the Laja Range, Black Forest, and Tonto 
Buttes on the east and north. It extends south-eastward | 
beyond the line of Prescott, and northward to within twenty | 
miles of the Grand Cafion of the Colorado. This distance 
is considerably over 100 miles. 
“Throughout it is covered with the finest grama grass, f 
which gives the name to the valley. The soil is rich, and only 4 
needs water to enable the breadstuffs of an entire State to be | 
raised here. Whipple thought irrigation might no more be | 
necessary here than in the Zufii valley ; but it is impossible — 
to try the experiment, as the Wallapi Indians infest the | 
country. | 
‘The average elevation of this great valley is about 4,500 
feet above tide. Tributary to it are various small but rich 
mountain valleys, in some of which ranches have been started. i 
Such are Pueblo and Walnut Creek, Turkey Creek, Partridge a 
Creek, Round Valley, Williamson’s Valley, Granite Creek, — 
&c., most of which, in the rainy season and when the snows 
melt, pour down large volumes of water into the main valley. — 
The Val de Chino is the proper head of the Rio Verde, along 
which, north and east of Prescott, lies much rich irrigable ; 
land in the open valleys between the numerous impassable _ 
cafions of this stream. The ‘ upper valley of the Verde,’ q | 
which I visited, is about forty-five miles long, and an average | 
of five miles in width. The soil is rich, water permanent — 
(without alkali), and sufficient for all purposes of irrigation, 
the elevation being only 3,000 to 3,900 feet above tide. 
Snow is unknown; and the valley having a deep sandy soil, 
is richer than the valley of the Rio Grande ; it is mixed, like _ 
4 the latter, with the detritus of lava deposits, and, being : 
