either side, though we observed none so large as this.

"The ruins of ancient buildings, thoroughly disintegrated, are scattered widely along these bottoms, and in some places there must certainly have been large cities. The rectilinear courses of the walls, and the dividing lines of the rooms, are all plainly visible still, though nothing remains but the cobblestones and pebbles out of which they seem to have been mainly constructed, and here and there a bit of cement or mortar. The ancient builders and occupiers of these could not have been our present Indians there, because they use different forms and materials. They could not have been Mexicans or Spaniards, because they invariably use brick or adobe. Who they were, where they came from, when they disappeared, and why-these are knotty problems for the antiquarian, which it is to be hoped time will soon solve. One thing is certain, these ancient builders-Aztecs (as popularly believed) or whoever they were-were at least good architects and engineers, and they must have peopled much of Arizona with an industrious and dense population, such as it will not see again—I was going to say-for centuries to come. But the Salt, in those days, must have been a larger river than it is now, or probably ever will be again; because two or three of these old acequias would carry off all its present waters, and leave none for the others, whose remains yet furrow the country there everywhere.

"However, the larger acequias may have been used only as receiving reservoirs, to husband the spring freshets, and for this purpose they might

be soon utilized again. However this may be, there are fine lands all along the bottoms of the Salt, and enough water flowing there yet to irrigate many thousands of acres. Indeed the best lands we saw in Arizona are here in the heart of it, on the Gila and Salt, and in time no doubt there will be flourishing settlements there. What the region needs is a railroad to connect it with 'inside,' or civilization, and this the "Texas and Pacific,' it seems will eventually furnish. Now, like so much of Arizona, it is inaccessible, or practically five hundred miles across a desert-from about everywhere. A railroad will remedy all this, and stimulate Arizona wonderfully in many ways. The whistle of the locomotive will end her Indian troubles, and many others, and may she hear it echoing and re-echoing among her mountains and canyons very soon! A railroad, indeed, is a great blessing everywhere; but in our western territories it means civilization as well, and without one Arizona will evidently continue to slumber on, as she has for so many years."

Prescott at this time remained about the same as for several years before. It had its full supply of saloons and gambling houses; no churches, although the chaplain from Fort Whipple semi-occasionally preached there. The population was less than five hundred. The placer mines in and around the town were on the eve of failure. Eleven mills, all from five to twenty stamps each, had been erected at mines where the ores assayed from one to two hundred dollars or more per ton, but of all these only one five stamp mill was then running, the Ticon

deroga, which was reported as only about paying expenses. "Instead of two hundred dollars, or more, per ton, as per assay, the mills in fact could only stamp out and save from ten to twenty dollars per ton; and this was a losing business. A new 'process' was just being tried at the Eureka Mill, which did excellently well, as per assay in the laboratory; but it was uncertain what would be the result when applied to large quantities of ore in the mill. The Bully Bueno and Sterling lodes seemed to be the most in favor. Specimens from the Sterling, that were shown, were indeed wonderful in richness, and there seemed to be no doubt that the ledges around Prescott abound in mines, which will yield very largely, if only a process can be found to treat successfully such obstinate and refractory sulphurets. For the present, however, mining operations about Prescott were very 'sick,' with poor prospect of speedy recovery. The region had indeed two advantages, very rare in Arizona, to-wit, good fuel, and sufficient water. The breadth of timber here, however, had been much overstated. An area of ten miles square or so embraced the bulk of the pine, which was an exceptional growth just there; the rest consisted chiefly of scrawny juniper and scraggly cedar, fit only for fuel and fencing."

Concerning the Indians in Arizona, General Rusling gives the following:

"The Indian population was estimated at about twenty thousand, of whom ten thousand were regarded as friendly, five thousand as hostile and five thousand as half and half—that is,

sometimes friendly, and sometimes hostile, depending on circumstances. To offset and antagonize these, the Government had then about twenty-five hundred regular soldiers in Arizona, which would seem sufficient, if well handled, though the people of course were clamoring for more. The great controlling tribe in Arizona, and extending into New Mexico, and the terror of the Mexican border, were the Apaches. Those that we saw gave one the impression of a fierce, sinewy, warlike race, very different from the Plains Indians, and it was plain there would be no peace in Arizona, nor much hope for its development, until these Apaches received a thorough chastisement. This they had never had yet, from either Mexicans or Americans, and consequently they despised and hated the Pale Faces, as we hate (or ought to hate) Satan himself. They inhabited the mountains chiefly, though they often descended into the plains, and in bands of two or three, or more, scoured the country far and near, as it suited them. About Tucson and Tubac they stole stock, and occasionally killed travellers, often within a mile or two of the towns. Sometimes, for months together, they would leave a road unmolested, and then, suddenly, attacking it at different points, clean out all the ranches. A few miles from Camp McDowell on the road between there and Maricopa Wells, they infested a rocky canyon on the Salt River, and mockingly defied all efforts to expel them. A fortnight before we reached Maricopa Wells, en route to Tucson, a party of them crossed the

Salt and the Gila, and stole ten head of stock from a ranch only three miles from the Wells. About the same time, another party of three lurked around the station at Blue Water, on the road to Tucson, some fifty miles south of the Wells, and, failing to find anything they could steal, vented their spleen by shooting an arrow into a valuable horse that was stabled safely from their reach. This done, the same night they struck across the country, some fifteen or twenty miles, to the peaceable Pima settlements on the Gila, where they stole a couple of horses apiece, and made good their escape with them to the mountains.

"Some of their exploits were very amusing, as well as very daring, worthy of the best days of Osceola or Tecumseh. We heard one of a party that had just preceded us in Arizona. They camped at a station for the night, and thought their animals thoroughly secure when they had put them into an adobe corral, with a wall four or five feet high by two thick, and then lay down themselves across the only entrance, with their rifles by their sides. The stealthy Apaches waited until their pale face friends were well asleep, and then with a piece of dry cow hide, hard and thin, sawed out a section of the adobe wall, at the other end of the corral, and in the morning Los Americanos found themselves horseless and muleless. We may 'fancy their feelings,' when they discovered the opening! Just then, I fear, they would have made poor Peace Commissioners! Especially as they had to foot it fifty miles, back to the next station, for new animals!