Chap. VI. VIEW FROM SUMMIT OF MOUNTAIN. 525 
way in which the chief of this little band addressed me 
was very comical. "You Captain, me Captain," he said. 
" You give plenty flour, plenty beans. Cocopa not 
hungry — good friends. — Not hungry — plenty to eat — no 
stealing, no hay steal ;" some Spanish getting mixed with 
their English. These people were darker in colour than 
the Cocomaricopas and the Pimas. 
Our camp was fixed one day upon the high bank of the 
river, at the base of a steep mountain peak terminating a 
rocky mountain chain. I climbed its summit, from whence 
I overlooked the desert to the north of the river — a grey 
plain, bordered by precipitous hills of a similar colour. 
This mountain is formed of a puddingstone, consisting of 
large masses of granite imbedded in a cement of diorite. As 
I contemplated the scene, I suddenly saw flames rise in the 
valley near our camp. Hastening down with the utmost 
speed, I found that our waggons fortunately were in a safe 
place ; and, our mules having been removed from the 
danger, we watched the burning of the high and dry plants 
in the valley with the interest which so striking a scene 
affords. 
We had now reached the lower course of the river, 
where the bottom land is covered with shrubs and trees, 
and enclosed by the perpendicular embankments of higher 
alluvial masses. The shrubs are principally acacias, 
many of them the same as in similar localities on the Rio 
Grande. On these embankments I remarked what is 
interesting as explanatory of facts in the vegetation of this 
region. The roots of the algarobbia were laid bare, and 
it was evident that they sought the necessary humidity 
at a depth quite extraordinary in comparison with the 
proportions of the shrub or tree. It is thus clear how 
the mezquite becomes green and blossoms in the spring, 
