TO THE COPPER MINES. 
231 
ranee of the vegetation, together with the moisture 
which prevails in such mountainous regions, I have no 
doubt the experiment would be successful. 
We reached this district on the 2d of May. Vege- 
tation was then forward, though there had been no 
rain. But it must be remembered that during the 
winter there is snow, and hence a good deal of 
moisture in the earth when the spring opens. The 
months of May and June were moderately warm. 
On the third of July the first rain fell. It then came in 
torrents, accompanied by hail, and lasted three or 
four hours. Many of our adobe houses were deluged 
with water, and the mountain sides exhibited cataracts 
in every direction. The arrgyo^ which passes through 
the village, and which furnishes barely water enough 
for our party and the animals, became so much swol- 
len as to render it difficult to cross ; and by the time 
it had received the numerous mountain torrents which 
fall into it within a mile from our camp, it became 
impassable for wagons, or even mules. The dry 
gullies became rapid streams, five or six feet deep, and 
sometimes fifty feet or more across. On this day, a 
party in coming to the Copper Mines from the plain 
below, where there had been no rain, found them- 
selves suddenly in a region overfiowing with water ; 
so that their progress was arrested, and they were 
obliged to wait until the flood had subsided. After 
this we had occasional showers, during the months of 
July and August. 
The weather was not uncomfortably warm any day 
while I was here ; indeed, on several occasions, directly 
after rains, I found a fire quite agreeable. The party 
