Page:Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society V.djvu/21

Rh region that General McCook, then commanding the Department of Arizona, which included the Navaho reservation, determined to make an expedition and settle, if possible, the question of the existence of valuable mines in the Carrizo Mountains. A commission, consisting of Gen. A. McD. McCook, U. S. A., ex-Gov. John L. Barstow of Vermont, and Prof. J. G. Allyn of New Mexico, was appointed. The commission entered the mountains with a mounted escort in May, 1892, and invited prospectors who had previously visited the region to come and show where the mineral lay. They came, and then it appeared they had staked off various claims and given them felicitous names such as the western miners know how to coin,—the "Lucky Bill," the "Boggy Snoggy," etc. Specimen ores were collected from every point where they were seen, and submitted to careful expert examination; but all proved worthless. Some fine gold has been found in the sands of the San Juan River,3 within the Navaho reservation; but it has not been found profitable to work for it.

7. Surface—Forests.—The surface of the country over which the Navahoes are scattered varies in altitude from 4,000 feet, or less, in the valley of the Colorado, to over 11,000 feet in the high peaks of Tsĭsnadzĭ'ni,52 San Mateo,54 San Francisco,56 and the San Juan58 range, which traditionally border their land. In the central and more thickly inhabited portion the highest eminence is in the Tuincha Mountains, 9,575 feet. The average altitude is about 6,000