hes thus far; and that, combined with the
proper evaporation of the region itself, that is, from its own springs
and rivers, yields all the rain that falls upon it. Great bodies of
vapour, rising from the Pacific and drifting eastward, first impinge
upon the coast range, and there deposit their waters; or perhaps they
are more highly-heated, and soaring above the tops of these mountains,
travel farther. They will be intercepted a hundred miles farther on by
the loftier ridges of the Sierra Nevada, and carried back, as it were,
captive, to the ocean by the streams of the Sacramento and San Joaquim.
It is only the skirt of these clouds, as I have termed it, that, soaring
still higher, and escaping the attractive influence of the Nevada,
floats on, and falls into the desert region. What then? No sooner has
it fallen than it hurries back to the sea by the Gila and Colorado, to
rise again and fertilise the slopes of the Nevada; while the fragment of
some other cloud drifts its scanty supply over the arid uplands of the
interior, to be spent in rain or snow upon the peaks of the Rocky
Mountains. Hence the source of the rivers running east and west, and
hence the oases, such as the parks that lie among these mountains.
Hence the fertile valleys upon the Del Norte, and other streams that
thinly meander through this central land.

"Vapour-clouds from the Atlantic undergo a similar detention in crossing
the Alleghany range; or, cooling, after having circled a great distance
round the globe, descend into the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi.
From all sides of this great continent, as you approach its centre,
fertility declines, and only from the want of water. The soil in many
places where there is scarcely a blade of grass to be seen, possesses
all the elements of vegetation. So the doctor will tell you; he has
analysed it."

"Ya, ya! dat ish true," quietly affirmed the doctor.

"There are many oases," continued Seguin; "and where water can be used
to irrigate the soil, luxuriant vegetation is the consequence. You have
observed this, no doubt, in travelling down the river; and such was the
case in the old Spanish settlements on the Gila."

"But why were these abandoned?" I inquired, never having heard any
reason assigned for the desertion of these once flourishing colonies.

"Why!" echoed Seguin, with a peculiar energy; "why! Unless some other
race than the Iberian take possession of these lands, the Apache, the