ARISPE. 
275 
those of California are but gravel stones, could be had 
for the picking up. Our Mexican guide told us that 
he had obtained a thousand dollars there in one week ; 
and we afterwards learned that the placers had really- 
been worked with great results, but the frequent in- 
roads of the Apaches had caused them to be abandoned. 
After leaving the canon, our course lay south-east 
over a pleasant and well-wooded country of oak, ash, 
and mezquit. The latter increases much in size as we 
proceed south. Reached a small running stream, when 
a beautiful valley a mile in width opened upon us, with 
luxuriant fields of wheat, corn, and pease. It was inter- 
sected by a broad acequia, the course of which was 
marked for a mile or more by a line of cotton- woods 
and willows. At the western extremity of this valley, 
on a spur of the plateau, stood the village of BacuacM. 
This is a peculiarity of all Mexican towns on the fron- 
tier. Farmers do not build their ranchos or houses on 
their arable lands, but congregate on the desert table- 
land, elevated from thirty to a hundred feet above 
the adjacent valley from which they derive their 
subsistence. The great end of security is thus at- 
tained at the sacrifice of all comfort and convenience ; 
no trees or shrubbery grow about the houses, nor is a 
blade of grass to be seen, but a glaring reflection from 
the light, gravelly soil strikes the eye, which is doubt- 
less one camse of so many diseases of that organ. A 
house surrounded by foliage with a grassy lawn, which 
makes a country residence so attractive,^ even though 
it be but a humble cottage, is unknown here. Indeed 
these people at present know not what comfort is ; but 
with their rich soil and the advantages of irrigation, a 
