On the Border With Crook - ERBzine

ARIZONA FLORA AND FAUNA. 9the garrison fully occupied. What with sickness, heat, badwater, flies, sand-storms, and utter isolation, life would have beendreary and dismal were it not for the novelty which helped outthe determination to make the best of everything. First of all,there was the vegetation, different from anything to be seeneast of the Missouri : the statuesque" pitahayas," with lusciousfruit ;the massive biznagas, whose juice is made into very palatable candy by the Mexicans ;the bear's grass, or palm ilia ;theSpanish bayonet, the palo verde, the various varieties of cactus,principal among them being the nopal, or plate, and the cholla,or nodular, which possesses the decidedly objectionable qualityof separating upon the slightest provocation, and sticking towhatever may be nearest ;the mesquite, with palatable gum andnourishing beans the; mescal, beautiful to look upon and grateful to the Apaches, of whom it is the main food-supply the;scrub oak, the juniper, cotton wood, ash, sycamore, and, lastly,the pine growing on the higher points of the environing mountains, were all noted, examined, and studied, so far as opportunity would admit.And so with the animal life : the deer, of the strange varietycalled ''the mule"; the coyotes, badgers, pole-cats, rabbits,gophers but not the prairie-dog, which, for some reason neverunderstood by me, does not cross into Arizona ; or, to be moreaccurate, does just cross over the New Mexican boundary at FortBowie in the southeast, and at Tom Keam's ranch in the Moquicountry in the extreme northeast.Strangest of all was the uncouth, horrible "escorpion," or" Gila monster," which here found its favorite habitat and attained its greatest dimensions. We used to have them not lessthan three feet long, black, venomous, and deadly, if half the storiestold were true. The Mexicans time and time again asserted thatthe escorpion would kill chickens, and that it would eject a poisonous venom upon them, but, in my own experience, I have to saythat the old hen which we tied in front of one for a whole day wasnot molested, and that no harm of any sort came to her beyondbeing scared out of a year's growth. Scientists were wont to ridicule the idea of the Gila monster being venomous, upon whatground I do not now remember, beyond the fact that it was alizard, and all lizards were harmless. But I believe it is now wellestablished that the monster is not to be handled with impunity.