hat of the more
elevated area about the head of Black River. In the midst of the
shrubbery growth on the breaks there is a fine growth of nutritious
grasses, which forms excellent winter forage.

The entire southern part of the reserve lying beyond the Prieto Plateau
is an excessively broken mountainous country, with abrupt changes in
altitude from the hot canyons, where cottonwoods flourish, to the high
ridges, where pines and firs abound.

The northeastern part of the section of the reserve under consideration
is cut off from the rest by the valley of Nutrioso Creek, a tributary of
the Little Colorado, and by the headwaters of the San Francisco
River. It is a limited district, mainly occupied by Escudilla Mountain,
rising to 10,691 feet, and its foothills. Escudilla Mountain slopes
abruptly to a long truncated summit, and is heavily forested from base
to summit by pines, aspens and spruces. On the south the foothills merge
into the generally mountainous area. On the north, at an altitude of
about 8,000 feet, they merge into the plains of the Little Colorado,
varied by grassy prairies and irregular belts of pinon timber.

The upper parts of the Little Colorado and Black Rivers, above 7,500
feet, are clear and cold, and well stocked with a native species of
small brook trout.

Owing to the generally elevated character of the southeastern section of
the Black Mesa Reserve, containing three mountain peaks rising above
10,000 feet, the annual precipitation is decidedly greater than
elsewhere on the reserve. The summer rains are irregular in character,
being abundant in some seasons and very scanty in others; but there is
always enough rainfall about the extreme head of Black River to make
grass, although there is always much hot, dry weather between May and
October. The fall and winter storms are more certain than those of
summer, and the parts of the reserve lying above 8,000 feet are usually
buried in snow before spring--frequently with several feet of snow on a
level. The amount of snow increases steadily with increase of
altitude. Some of the winter storms are severe, and on one occasion,
while living at an altitude of 7,500 feet, I witnessed a storm during
which snow fell continuously for nearly two days. The weather was
perfectly calm at the time, and after the first day the pine trees
became so loaded that an almost continual succession of reports were
heard from the breaking of large branches. At the close of t