THE hCiEJSlIST. 
43 
be^^inning ;iltr:tcl the, attention of 
<jai>ita!ists. 
The writer and four associates were 
pioneers in this plai^n' iit'id. They 
located 2200 acres ot tluse placer de- 
}>o>«its. 
Three or four oiher companies are 
now in the fielil . 
Before closinix, I must bru ily notice 
th(^ fauna of the southwest. 
With few exceptions, I noticed noth- 
ing; different froin what iias been men- 
tijufd in previous notes. 
The Gila monster has been described 
by several late writers. 1 cannot be- 
lieve, however, that it is as venomous 
as newspaper writeis and "other ro- 
rnarioers" have generally claimed. 
A Mexican who traveled with us ten 
or hfteen days, Jose Marie Mendosa by 
name, told us, one night, how the Gila 
monster originated As it shows evo- 
lution by retrogression, I give it as 
souiething new in natural history. 
Before any Mexicans or Europeans 
lived in the country along the Gila, a 
padre, priest, started from Sonora*to 
visit the Indians of Arizona. He w^as 
lost, and wande^'ed for days on the 
desert. At length he came to an In- 
dian, a Papago, near what is now 
known as Antelope Gap. He asked 
the Papago for a drink. Although the 
padre w^as nearly famished, the Papago 
refused to part with any of his "can- 
tino del aqua" canteen of water. 
The padre pronounced a curse on 
the Papago who immediately fell to 
the ground and was changed to a Gila 
monster. Since then Gila monsters 
have been more or less abundant all 
along the Gila river in the Papago 
country, but no where else. 
When the story was finished, I sai:i!, 
''Jose, you do not believe such a story 
as thai? ' • O. si, senor! 
T here seems to be no doujt in tht; 
mind of Jose on this subject, so I leave 
him and the members of the Academ/ 
to settle the matter as they best can. 
The most interesting animal, per 
haps, in all the southwest is the civc^t 
cat. Many miners tariie this cat and 
teach it to catch rats and mice. I saw 
one run f' om one wall of a cabin to the 
opposite wall by passing along the 
joist. He ran very swiftly, but with 
his back down like a fly on a ceiling. 
His movement was so noiseless and 
swift that he captured his prey— a 
very much surprised mouse. 
As is well known, the mountain lion, 
a species of puma, the cougar and two 
or three species of bear are more or 
le.ss common in the southwest. 
But there is one thing that can 
scarcely fail to be noted by the observer 
of nature in this country. This is the 
absence of birds and insects. Occa- 
sionally, an eagle or vulture may b(} 
seen in the distance soaring from peak 
to peak. Besides the desert quail, one 
may travel for days and not see a 
bird. 
One chilly night in January, I heard 
several insects buzzing around my 
head after I had rolled in my blanket 
for the night. The air appeared to 
me to be freezing cold, but, of course, 
it was not. I was much interested in 
an insect that wanted to be so sociable 
on such a cold night, so the next morn- 
ing, I asked Jose, our oracle, what 
made the buzzing noise. He looked 
wise and said in Spanish, '-winter 
mosquitoes, senor." It is very con- 
venient to have an expounder of nature 
with yon like Jose. In fact, I would 
to-day be in the dark regarding the 
origin of the Gila monster but for him. 
