The Newtown bee., 1904-06-17

through mountain tunnel we emerge
 therefrom,, to find ourselves half way
 up ragged mountain side, where along the winding shelf of rock the
 rails are laid, on which our train zig
 zags along, when from the least dis
 placement of rail or spike we would be
 hurled thousand feet below. Soon
 we shoot out into a stretch of level
 plain, where jagged rocks stand out
 like sentinels and for 50 miles we may
 not see man or beast, unless perchance,
 we pass gang of Mexican track re-
 pairers toiling under a broiling sun.
 Here and there will be seen rude huts,
 the houses of these nomads of the
 desert, and occasionally we pass sta
 tions where the group of houses, the
 schoolhouse and the little church gives evidence of some attempt at culture
 and refinement, but "Saloon" is seen over the doors of so many buildings, it
 makes one wonder where the money
 will come from with which to buy the
 necessaries of life. There is a proverb
 in this country, "That even the Devil
 cannot eat cactus," and we are re-
 minded ot it as we speed along and see
 the prolific growth of it and of the gnarled tree yucca growing so luxuri- antly under the burning sun. So hot
 is the sun and in some places the plains so void of shade that even the birds are glad to light in the shade made by a vine fence port, and ornitholagists say that when sitting on her eggs un- der desert sun she will stand over them and spread her wings to shade them and keep them cool, only sitting close upon them during the night. At this time the drought is terrible and we are told cattle and horses are dying in large numbers for want of water. We saw the bodies of two large steers and horse that had, within few days, dropped in their tracks. They will not be buried, but lie there and dry up. Our train was moving along at a slow pace up heavy grade, and as sat beside the colored porter, looking out on the brown and barren slope, counting the skeletons of cattle just inside the wire fence, l finally gave vent to my thoughts by saying: ''This is the most God .forsaken strip of country have yet seen. I don't see bit of animal life, and it don't look as if single thing could be raised on the land" "No," said the porter, "a fellah kaint eben go out on dat ar hill an raise a fuss, nd when a fellah kaint so much as raise fuss on de lan' it's nifty pore lan'.'
 It looks like big story, but count ed the skeletons of 20 animals in 10 miles travel that day, that lay where they had dropped, just inside the wire fence along side the track. Then I stopped the count, but any one at all observing will see lots of skeletons of cattle along side the track on the long stretches of plain in the almost waterless wastes of southern Arizona. Sheep are more abundant than cattle' and though they need water, they can be handled more easily than cattle or horses where water is exceedingly scarce As we speed on, the scene oc- casionally varies, and we will pass through little valley with dry river bed running through it. Scraggling tufts of willow hedge indicate that if roots run deep enough, some moisture can be found, and a few driven wells with wind mills for power, furnish water enough so that little vegeta- tion will grow within reach of the water, and cottonwood trees will fur nish shade sufficient to wait an occa- sional breath of air into the over- heated hut or hovel where some lone mother is watching her little one with not much more to live upon than "the hope of better times coming" In spite of all the dreariness of our des- ert trip, there is fascination about 1t all that I cannot explain, and it has been an experience I am glad to have had. It was sunset when we came in sight of the Colorado river, the boundary line between Arizona and California. Since leaving Needles the Monday evening before, we had seen very little surface water. Now as our train rolled along it's western bank, it looked so refreshing we seemed to be on the border of new world. The great river as it runs through the Grand Canyon is confined
 in it's course by it's solid walls, but when it gets beyond that confinement and runs through desert sands 1t is at
 times cratic in it's course and oft times forms new channels. That
 proved to be the case after the Santa
 Fe road was built, and new bridge
 was constructed among those enduring
 obelisks which are known as the 'sNee-
 dles," and from which the town is
 named, cantilever bridge, the second
 largest of it's kind in the world. The
 main suspended span is 660 feet in
 length and each cantilever arm 165
 feet. We crossed on this bridge on
 our return from the Grand Canyon and
 we also crossed the same river at Yu-