Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-10-30

camp at "Seven Mile House" A wheel was sent back and the other compand came into camp in fifty five minutes. The wagon got there an hour after the company. The number of miles marched this day was twelve. The ambulance was much in use this day, four men finding refuge on its soft cushions Tho only thing this camp is remark able for is its scarcity O. water; what was found had to be carried from an almost inaccessible ravine. The men were much fatigued and when night came were glad to lay down, and long before taps was sounded, were all asleep. One of the com panies, on the following morning, broke camp and started for Pine, a Mormon village about ten miles away. The march was very arduous, the road being very rough and rocky. The descent into Strawberry valley was very slow and difficult; the rosd-was the worst the wagons had yet travelled over, sandy, rocky, and with deep ruts here and there, and many large boulders in the mid de of the road; ropes were frs- quently used to keep the wagons from upsetting. Once down in the valley, they made good progress, over the sandy road. At Il:30 Pine was reached, and they went into camp on the outskirt of the town. A wheel was sent back and the other company came into camp, bringing with them a deer, a con vinciug trophy of the marksmsn- ship of the company's commander. In a beautiful fertile valley, sur rounded by lofty hills, on whose pine clad hills the wild deer, wild goat and antelope, seemingly un- conscious of danger, roamed at large, this little Mormon settlement finds refuge from the noise of the busy world. Twenty families, six teen Mormon and four Gentile,- living as one large family-com- prise the population of Pine. The people, with one or two exceptions, live in log cabins. This little noun tain village boasts of aschool house much larger than many found in large towns, and it's meeting house, though the exterior is rough, the interior is handsomely furnished and very cosy, and the odor of sancity about the room, make one 10th to leave it. Fed by a stream coming down from the mountain an acequa runs through the one street, from which the homes are supplied with water and the orchards and farms irrigated. Their principal iu- dustry is agriculture, and their fruit, especially apples and peaches, for size, excellence of taste and quality, are unsurpassed b. any m the United States. Having no nearer market than Globe - ninety-hve miles away-they were glad to dis pose of fruit and vegetables to the command at any price. Two days were spent in camp here, during which time the camp was supplied with game, principally deer and quail. On the morning of the sec ond day, the command left camp at 7:30 a. m. in light marching order, for the Natural Bridge, five miles away, arriving there at 10 a. m. After regaling themselves on a lunch and some luscious fruit (the latter the kindness of the battalion commander, the men were per mitted to visit the bridge, all look ing about in astonishment for no bridge was to be seen. Several of the men were standing in the center of a small vineyard dehberating whether to proceed further or turn back, when an old rancher, who lives near the bridge, came up, and re- quested them to follow him; a mo- ment later they beheld the Natural Bridge; they had been standing on it unconsciously. Following the guide down into a ravine they soon found themselves under the bridge. Standing under the arch, awed by the immensity of the stalactites and grandeur, the men could only look and wonder at this marvellous work of nature. The old rancher volun- teered few statistics concerning the bridge. The theory of geolo- gists is, that by the continual ac- ton, for ages, of the stream (that flows under the bridget with its periodical freshets, nature has tun- neled out of the solid lime stone rock this bridge.