erprise of
girdling a continent with steel.

[Illustration: AN ARIZONA CLOUD-EFFECT.]

[Illustration: OLD HOME OF KIT CARSON, TAOS, N.M.]

[Illustration: GRAVE OF KIT CARSON, TAOS, N.M.]

[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF CANON DIABLO.]

The art of bridge-building in some form or other is one of the
earliest necessities of civilization. Even the apes in equatorial
regions will link themselves together, and swing their living line
across a stream to trees on the opposite bank, thus forming a
connected path of bodies along which other monkeys pass in safety.
Bridges of ropes or reeds are, also, made by the most primitive of
men; while viaducts of stone rose gradually in perfection, from the
rude blocks heaped up by savages to the magnificent structures
fashioned by the Romans. But with the introduction of iron and steel
into their composition, bridges are now constructed quickly, with
consummate skill, and in a multitude of different forms assist in
making possible the safe and rapid transit of our great Republic.

[Illustration: HOMES OF CLIFF DWELLERS.]

[Illustration: SKULLS OF CLIFF DWELLERS.]

In addition to all the wonderful natural features of Arizona and New
Mexico, the insight into ancient and modern Indian life which they
afford is of extraordinary interest, particularly as aboriginal
civilization, evidently, reached a higher level here than was
attained by any of the tribes which roamed throughout the regions now
known as the Middle and Eastern States. The natives of the arid
regions of the great Southwest, though subdivided into numerous
tribes, are usually known under the general title of Pueblos. The
name itself, bestowed upon them by the Spaniards, is significant;
since _pueblo_ is the Spanish word for village, and this would seem
to prove that the race thus designated three hundred and fifty years
ago was not nomadic, but had been settled here for many years.

[Illustration: LAGUNA.]

[Illustration: CLIFF PALACES.]

Antiquity and mystery impart a charm to these Pueblo Indians. They
are foundlings of history. We see their immemorial settlements, and
know that, centuries before Columbus landed on San Salvador, a number
of advantageously situated places in the western portion of this
continent served as the homes of powerful tribes, whose towns and
villages formed the scenes of warfare and barbaric splendor. But of
the men who built those villages we know comparatively nothing. Their
origin is almos