esire for a larger
knowledge. There is no doubt in my mind that these geysers are more
active at certain seasons of the year than at others. We saw them in
midsummer, when the surface waters are greatly diminished. In the
spring, at the time of the melting of the snows, the display of the
first-class geysers must be more frequent and powerful. We left this
valley, with its beautiful scenery, its hot springs and geysers, with
great regret.

THE COUNTRY OF THE CLIFF-DWELLERS.

ALFRED TERRY BACON.

[Ruskin, among his reasons for not visiting the United States,
declared that it would be impossible for him to exist, even for
a short interval, in a country that had no old castles. Had he
known it, he might have found here old castles in abundance,
older perhaps, and grander in situation, than any to be found
in his own land. These are the ruined dwellings of the ancient
inhabitants of the western canons and of the pueblo-builders of
Arizona and New Mexico. We give a traveller's account of the
Cliff-dwellers' habitations.]

The attraction which drew the conquerors of Mexico forty-five days'
journey away into the North was the fame which had reached them of the
Seven Cities of Cibola (the buffalo), great in wealth and population,
lying in the valley of the Rio de Zuni. To the grief of the invaders,
they found not cities, but rather villages of peaceful agricultural
people dwelling in great pueblos three and four stories high, and they
searched in vain for the rumored stores of gold. At that time the
pueblos held a large population skilled in many arts of civilization.
They cultivated large tracts of ground, wove fabrics of cotton, and
produced ornate pottery. Their stone-masonry was admirable. But even
three hundred years ago it seems that the people were but a remnant of
what they had once been. Even then the conquerors wondered at the many
ruins which indicated a decline from former greatness. The people have
not now the same degree of skill in their native arts which the race
once had, and it is probable that when the Spaniards came and found them
declining in numbers the old handicrafts were already on the wane.

In a remote age the ancestors of these Pueblo tribes, or a race of
kindred habits, filled most of that vast region which is drained by the
Colorado River and its affluents, and spread beyond into the valley of
the Rio Grande. The explorers of a great extent