An explorer reached the Colorado at a point where it is 266 yards wide, and adds that the "soil" "bore nothing but dry weeds and bushes and the whole scene presented the most perfect picture of desolation I have ever beheld, as if some =sirocco= had passed over the land, =withering= and =scorching everything=." (note 42.) Withered and scorched! say the Ancients. Withered and scorched! say the Moderns. In one favored spot, "to the limit of vision, the tortuous course of the river (the Colorado) could be traced through a belt of alluvial land varying from one to six miles in width, and garnished with inviting meadows, with broad groves of willow and mezquite and promising fields of grain." The visitor remarks that the valley appears most attractive in the spring--"at this season of the year before the =burning heat= has =withered= the freshness and beauty of the early vegetation." (note 43.) We are informed that the valley south of the Bend of the Colorado near the "Needles," there is in the spring a "most brilliant array" of flowers; but, "after the ephemeral influence of the few spring showers has passed, the annual plants are soon =burned= up by the sun's heat and perfect sterility prevails throughout the remainder of the season." (note 44.) It is sufficiently apparent that the soil when properly watered can produce abundant vegetation and sufficient nourishment for, of course, limited numbers of human beings. Deprived of water, the soil is unable to sustain desirable plants, and presents a sterile aspect. Surveying its present condition or appearance of barrenness, a modern visitor wonders how the ancient inhabitants contrived to exist, or find food, within the withered, unfruitful chasm. But one of the ancients, Mr. Chwang Tsze, writing about this very =Ta-Hoh= or Great Chasm, says that they used water to irrigate the otherwise scorched or dried up soil. Then, if such a somewhat belated answer is true, the question arises, where are the proofs? A chief of the Ethnological Bureau very properly furnishes the answer. Standing in the abyss of the =Ta-Hoh=, on the bank of the roaring river, he beholds some ancient buildings and perceives how their vanished occupants formerly contrived to subsist. He says: "We can see where the ancient people who lived here--a race more highly civilized than the present--had made a =garden=, and =used= a great spring" [or feeder of the Colorado], "that comes out of the rocks for =irrigation=," etc. (n. 45.) We irrigated the soil, say the Ancients. They irrigated the soil, say the Moderns. Next comes the statement of some trusted early sage or scholar who was certainly acquainted with our =Ta-Hoh= (containing the ruin and irrigated soil just noticed.) It is an observer or scribe named =Tu-tsan=, who says:-- 10. =Seay= (to paint, to draw, to sketch.) 11. =yih= (to spread abroad, to diffuse.) 12. =tung= (a gorge, ravine, canyon, a cave, a grotto.)