In the Giant Cactus Belt 183 
stream beautifully clear in appearance and find it so 
bitter that even the horses turned from it in disgust. 
How the soldiers suffered, poor men. They 
would start from the station, each with his canteen 
full and rolled up in a wet blanket to keep it cool as 
long as possible, but often long before we reached 
another supply every drop would be gone and they 
had to toil on as they could. Then the heat grew 
too great to move by day at all and we only marched 
by night. Those delicious nights! As the sun went 
down and the longed for coolness of evening came‘to 
refresh us, I would sometimes have the waggon cover 
removed, and then lying on the mattress, slowly 
travelling on, I watched the stars rise and pass 
across the sky until they went out in the morning 
light. 
Speaking of the Apaches, she says: 
We had an alarm every now and then, but the 
body of troops was so large there was no great danger 
so long as ordinary precautions were taken. We had 
scouts and sentinels and no straggling was allowed. 
It would not have been safe even for a small party. 
We knew the Indians were watching us and we never 
knew when they might attack. After passing Fort 
Yuma we were in the Indian country and had left 
civilisation behind. Though we had no stragglers, 
our line was very long and the heavy baggage waggons 
would fall into the rear, so that it not infrequently 
happened that we arrived at the station where we 
were to halt while they were far behind and we had 
to wait hours before we could get food or anything 
we needed. That was weary work. 
