Skunk--Garnets--Leave Arizona.

This shall be a sketchy chapter of odds and ends, but more or less
interesting according to the individual reader.

The horse's intelligence is nothing compared to that of the mule, and as
riding animal in rough country a mule should always be used. In Mexico,
Central American States and the Andes mules are alone used; and what
splendid, even handsome, reliable creatures they are on roads, or rather
trails, such as it would be hazardous to take horses over. I once saw
the unusual sight of two big strong mules (our ammunition pack animals)
roll together down a very steep hillside. Happily neither mules nor
loads were at all damaged, but it was a steepish hill, as on our
returning and trying to climb it we had to dismount and hang on to the
horses' tails. Another good point about mules is that they will not
founder themselves. Put an open sack of grain before a hungry mule and
he will eat what he wants, but never in excess, whereas a horse would
gorge and founder himself at once.

As said before, the homing instinct of horses and cattle is very
remarkable. I have known horses "shipped" by a railway train in closed
cars to a distance of over 400 miles, some of which on being turned
loose found their way back to their old range. Cattle, too, may be
driven a hundred or two hundred miles through the roughest country,
without roads or trails of any kind, and even after being held there for
several weeks will at once start home and take exactly the same route as
that they were driven over, even though there be no "sign" of any kind
to guide them and certainly no scent.

On my shooting and fishing trips I rode one horse and packed another.
The packed horse, on going out, had to be led, of course, unless indeed
he was my saddle-horse's chum. But on going home, after even a couple of
weeks' absence, I simply turned the pack-horse loose, hit him a lick
with the rope, and off he would go with the utmost confidence as to the
route, and follow the trail we had come out on, each time a different
trail be it remembered, with ridiculous exactitude; yet there was no
visible track or sign of any kind. Indeed, I would often find myself
puzzled as to our whereabouts and feel quite confident we were at fault,
when suddenly some familiar tree or landmark, noticed on going out,
would be recognized.

Parts of our Arizona range were covered with great beds of broken
malpais rock, really black lava, ha