d passed a sort of sign-board, with the
rudely written inscription, "Camp Starvation," and we had heard from
Mr. Bailey the story of the tragic misfortunes at this very place of
the well-known Hitchcock family of Arizona. The road was lined with dry
bones, and skulls of oxen, white and bleached in the sun, lying on the
bare rocks. Indeed, at every stage of the road we had seen evidences
of hard travel, exhausted cattle, anxious teamsters, hunger and thirst,
despair, starvation, and death.

However, Stoneman's Lake remains a joy in the memory, and far and away
the most beautiful spot I ever saw in Arizona. But unless the approaches
to it are made easier, tourists will never gaze upon it.

In the distance we saw the "divide," over which we must pass in order
to reach Camp Verde, which was to be our first stopping place, and we
looked joyfully towards the next day's march, which we expected would
bring us there.

We thought the worst was over and, before retiring to our tents for the
night, we walked over to the edge of the high mesa and, in the gathering
shadows of twilight, looked down into the depths of that beautiful lake,
knowing that probably we should never see it again.

And indeed, in all the years I spent in Arizona afterward, I never even
heard of the lake again.

I wonder now, did it really exist or was it an illusion, a dream, or the
mirage which appears to the desert traveller, to satisfy him and lure
him on, to quiet his imagination, and to save his senses from utter
extinction?

In the morning the camp was all astir for an early move. We had no
time to look back: we were starting for a long day's march, across the
"divide," and into Camp Verde.

But we soon found that the road (if road it could be called) was worse
than any we had encountered. The ambulance was pitched and jerked from
rock to rock and we were thumped against the iron framework in a most
dangerous manner. So we got out and picked our way over the great sharp
boulders.

The Alsatian soldier carried the baby, who lay securely in the pappoose
cradle.

One of the cavalry escort suggested my taking his horse, but I did
not feel strong enough to think of mounting a horse, so great was my
discouragement and so exhausted was my vitality. Oh! if girls only knew
about these things I thought! For just a little knowledge of the care
of an infant and its needs, its nourishment and its habits, might have
saved both mother and child from such u