in the foot-hills, about forty feet above the bed of the arroyo, or
gulch. All the human figures were drawn in the characteristic style
that we find farther north, the hands and feet being defined with
three radiating lines, like a bird's track. The size of the figure,
carved in something like a frame, is about twenty by twenty-four
inches, and each of the three figures in the group close below is
about eighteen inches high. Some of the drawings evidently represent
the deified dragon-fly found almost everywhere among the ruins of
Arizona and Northern Mexico. There are also the concentric circles,
the conventionalised spiral, and the meander design, so common among
the North American Indians, and still in use among the Moquis.

Our botanist, Mr. Hartman, drew my attention to an interesting cactus,
which is beautifully shaped like a candelabra, and attains a height of
three to five feet. As it grows old, the top joints of the branches
become thick and heavy and are easily broken off by the wind. The
joints, like all other parts of the plant, are beset with numerous
inch-long spines, and many of them fasten in the loose, moist soil
and strike root. In this way many new plants are formed, standing in
a circle around the mother plant. On sloping ground the young plants
form rows, some forty feet long. There was a fruit to be observed,
but very scarce in comparison with that of other species of _Cereus_
growing in the vicinity.





Chapter II