o ten feet high. I thought what a
splendid place it would be for the Yankees who are fond of greens.

This was the first place since we left Los Angeles where we could buy
any kind of breadstuff, and we were here enabled to get a change of
diet, including greens. This seemed to be one end or side of another
valley, and as we went along it seemed to widen away to the east; but
our course was to the north, and we followed the road. The architecture
of all the buildings except the churches was all the same, being built
of the sun dried adobes or bricks made by mixing up a clay mud with
tough grass and letting it get dry and hard. We saw the same kind of
roof material as before, a sort of mineral tar which I supposed they
must find somewhere about.

I could imagine why the houses were built in this way, for when the
Jesuit missionaries first came in they found the country occupied by
Indians who used their arrows to good effect, as they were jealous of
all outside occupation. The early settlers evidently made the walls of
their dwellings thick and strong enough to resist all kinds of weapons
used by Indians. They could not set fire to them for they were fire
proof and arrow proof, and the hostile Indian could dance on the roof
without being able to get in or do any injury. Thus the poor Indian was
fairly beat and eventually became a better Indian.

The Indians of what is now Nevada and Arizona used to come over into
these rich valleys and clandestinely capture a band of a hundred or more
head of cattle or horses and make their escape. They were often followed
by the herders, but if they did not overtake the thieves before they got
into the deep canons of the mountains, they would usually turn back and
let them go rather than be led into ambush in some strange narrow place
where escape would be impossible and they might be filled with arrows.
No doubt the trail we had followed across the plains, where there were
so many horses' bones, was one of these trails along which the thieving
Indians took their booty which died upon the trip.

Our road from here was near the foot-hills on the west side of a level,
grassy, thinly timbered valley, and as we advanced we noticed that the
timber grew more plentiful and the trees larger, without much
underbrush. We also noticed that the vegetation was ranker and no doubt
the soil was very rich. We then came to a point where the mountain
reaches out almost across the valley to meet the mo