The Arizona sentinel., 1896-03-28

much expense to secure a faithful and en tire.y accurate description of trip tber
 and back, believing that it will intrest Ou
 many readers.-EDITO2.
 Well, I have been over to the L;
 Fortuna mines; over across the d1,
 wash and up in the Gila mountains
 upon whose worn peaks the las
 crimson glow of the setting sun love
 10 finger. Many eaons ago-mayh&l
 in the sIIuric age of the earth's forma
 tion-the road travelled was the be,
 Of an inland sea, @ gigantic arm 0
 the placid Pacific, and the mountain
 there on the edge of the dry, sandy
 plain were peaks miles and miles high
 But with the passing of the centurie:
 a change has come for that one timc
 sea has faded away and the mountains
 are falling down. This has nothing
 to do with La Fortuna, though; it is
 only an interesting phase of a journey
 over there.
 It was very early the morning l started and 1 was dozing away to my castles in far off Spain when q rough voice called: "Time to get Up. Stage soon be here." To my half awakened senses 1t seemed a very distant voice and my sensations must have re- sembled much those of Rip Van Wrinkle before he took his loRg nap in the Cattskills. With the arrival of the stage, however, I was ready. The sun was just creeping over the edges of the plain when 1t drove up and 1 mounted to a seat beside the driver. 4 singing of the whip lash. a chirrup to the horses and we were off
 Down the long, dusty road, we went, leaving behind Us cloud that Eoaled slowly upon the wings ot the odorous breeze and fell like q white mantle, upon the fences and out stretched arms of the green pepper trees.
 It was indeed beautiful morning. The breezes that softly kissed our cheeks wereladen with the commingled breath Of the roses and orange blossoms, She road gleaming in the sunshine stretched away before Us like abroad sat In ribbon and the waving arms of the wayside underbrush rose and fell in regular ca !ence, like the pillows of the se&, across the sand dunes came the dull untitled rear of the Colorado, the singing birds would cease their song to sound an ahrighted note of warning fer their industrious mates, building their homes amId the low lying branches of the great cotton- woods and the rhymic beat of the horses iron shoes, resembled much the tinkle of minstrel's castanets. Yes, it was beautiful morning and 1 felt glad 10 breathe the bright sun shine as the stage rolled on across the plain toward the low-lying mountains limned against the horizon and. look ing, from distance, like a pirate fleet riding at anchor on 8 summery sea.
 As we rolled on the stage driver be- guiled the time by reciting many strange tales-not of hair-breadth escapes and Apache raids but of pc IiticaI economy and occult science for my stage driver was spiritualistic novice and much wrapped up in his theme. One of his illustrations was by the warning note of giant rattler, that lay coiled by the roadside. We took time to kill him and secure his rattlers-thirteen in He was five feet long and a beautiful specimen.
 This done we drove on, on over the try wash, across the beds of sunken rivers, past great punches of cacti; past great boaI}c:s. over wide reaches ,. g,3cia, plain, last the o.h sts of the National telegraph line and the path of the Mexican with the foothills getting learer and nearer until the wheels on the pebbles and rolled in 1 between two bluntel hills, Q mimic l gateway to La Fortuna town and past those harbingers Of civilization and i evidences of human proximity-the l saloons. There are three of them lere, all having names characteristic of mining camps One, the "Utica," $ named after another mine belong ng to Mr Lane; another i5 called |. The Bucket of Blood" and the third The Blazing Star" Other tents aoro soon espied, however, as the stage rolled along the road that winds T., around and about the hills. They ! ire perched in all sorts of impossible