ARIZONA, 71

climate. This is the region spoken of by Hon. Richard McCormick,
Secretary of the Territory, in the following extracts from a valuable
paper which he prepared for Hall’s “ Guide to the Great West:”

“Yavapai county embraces a part of Arizona as yet unknown to
map-makers, and in which the Territorial officers arrived hard upon
the heels of the first white inhabitants. Until 1863, saving for a short
distance above the Gila, it was, even to the daring trapper and the
adventurous gold-seeker, a terra incognita, although one of the richest
mineral, agricultural, grazing, and timber divisions of the Territory,
and abundantly supplied with game. Yavapai county is nearly as
large as the State of New York. The Verde and Salina rivers, tribu-
taries of the Gila, which run (southwardly) through its centre, abound
in evidences of a former civilization. Here are the most extensive and
impressive ruins to be found in the Territory —relics of cities, aque-
ducts, acquias, and canals, of mining and farming operations, and of
other employments indicating an industrious and enterprising people.
Mr. Bartlett refers to these ruins as traditionally reported to him, to
show the extent of the agricultural population formerly supported
here, as well as to furnish an argument to sustain the opinion that this
is one of the most desirable positions for an agricultural settlement of
any between the Rio Grande and the Colorado............ Ki

‘In timber lands Yavapai county exceeds all others in the Territory.
Beginning some miles south of Prescott, and running north of the San
Francisco Mountain, is a forest of yellow pine interspersed with oak,
sufficient to supply all the timber for building material, for mining,
and for fuel that.can be required for a large population.

“Prescott, the capital, is in the heart of a mining district second,
in my judgment, to none upon the Pacific coast, ‘Che surface ores of
thirty mines of gold and silver and copper, which I had assayed in
San Francisco, were pronounced equal to any surface ores ever tested
by the metallurgists, who are among the most skilful and experienced
in the city; and so far as ore has been had from a depth, it fully sus-
tains its reputation. The veins are large and boldly defined, and the
ores are of varied classes, usually such as to be readily and inexpen-
sively worked, while the facilities for working them are of a superior
order. At the ledges is an abundant supply of wood and water; near
at hand are grazing and farming lands, and roads may be opened in
any direction without great cost. The altitude is so great that the
temperature is never oppressively warm; the nights, even in mid-
summer, are refreshingly cool and bracing.”

Such is the district through the midst of which the Union Pacific
Railway will run for two-thirds of its way across the Territory of