[Illustration: NATURAL BRIDGE, NEAR MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA.]
At a little station called Peach Springs, the road draws very near the Hualpai reservation, and is within less than a score of miles of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado; but, though short, the way is a difficult one, over parched sands and an eye-wearying desolation, until within four or five miles of the cañon, when the approach to water is indicated by a gradual increase of vegetation, which, however, never becomes rank, even along the river-shore. A stage-line is now running from Flagstaff, which, though not so near as Peach Springs, offers a much easier route to the cañon. The trip from Flagstaff is made in twelve hours, and, by comfortable stages, the traveler is taken to one of the most imposing points in the cañon (Marble Cañon), where the descent is sheer 6,000 feet, and a panorama is afforded of frightful chasm, curiously chaotic walls, strange formations, and mountains breaking one behind the other, like waves on the ocean, until sight fades into the perspective of distance. Here terror and sublimity, in a marvel of natural extremes, have formed perpetual alliance to excite amazement in the mind of every visitor.
We cross the Colorado at Powell, where, to the south, are Red Rock buttes, and to the north are the Needles, the latter being hills that run up into sharp peaks, and then fall away to join a long stretch of plain. Black Mountains run parallel with the river on the north, near the foot of which, but on the river-shore, is a Mohave village, a settlement of that miserable remnant, who from a powerful people have degenerated, through oppression and decimation, until they are scarcely a degree removed from the Digger Indians. The reservation proper of this tribe is, however, near the Navajoes, in the northeastern part of the territory.
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[Illustration: A CENTURY PLANT IN BLOOM, CALIFORNIA.]
[Illustration: A CACTUS FENCE IN ARIZONA.]
Immediately before blooming, the century plant puts out a long stem or shoot, as seen in the photograph, upon which the flowers appear in due course of time. The event is such a rare one as to be quite a curiosity, and as comparatively few of the readers of this book will probably ever be so fortunate as to see the real plant in bloom, they will all the more appreciate this beautiful photograph.—In many parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico the cactus plant is made to do service as a fence around gardens and small fields. The variety generally used for this purpose has a broad, thin blade, resembling an ancient broadsword, and these grow so close together, with sharp needle-pointed thorns shooting out in every direction, that no living thing can pass through or between them.