ighlands are sparsely covered with pinyon and cedar. The lofty
banks through which the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and
sandstone, rising precipitously from the water. Ascending the river the
country is wild and broken, until it enters the mountain region, where
the scenery is incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding prairies
are naturally arid and sterile, producing but little vegetation, and
the primitive grass, though of good quality, is thin and scarce. Now,
however, under a competent system of irrigation, the whole aspect of the
landscape is changed from what it was thirty years ago, and it has all
the luxuriance of a garden.

The whole country, it is claimed, was once possessed by the Shos-shones,
or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the Southern plains are a
branch; and, although many hundred miles divide their hunting-grounds,
they were once, if not the same people, tribes or bands of that great
and powerful nation. They retain a language in common, and there is also
a striking analogy in many of their religious rites and ceremonies,
in their folk-lore, and in some of their everyday customs. These facts
prove, at least, that there was at one time a very close alliance which
bound the two tribes together. Half a century ago they were, in point of
numbers, the two most powerful nations in all the numerous aggregations
of Indians in the West; the Comanches ruling almost supreme on the
Eastern plains, while the Shos-shones were the dominant tribe in the
country beyond the Rocky Mountains, and in the mountains themselves.
Once, many years ago, before the problem of the relative strength of the
various tribes was as well solved as now, the Shos-shones were supposed
to be the most powerful, and numerically the most populous, tribe of
Indians on the North American continent.

In the immediate vicinity of the old Pueblo fort at the time of its
greatest business prosperity, game was scarce; the buffalo had for some
years deserted the neighbouring prairies, but they were always to be
found in the mountain-valleys, particularly in one known as "Bayou
Salado," which forty-five years ago abounded in elk, bear, deer, and
antelope.

The fort was situated a few hundred yards above the mouth of the
"Fontaine qui Bouille" River,[47] so called from two springs of mineral
water near its head, under Pike's Peak, about sixty miles above its
mouth.

As is the case with all the savage races of the world, t