This Is
The Last Of The Promontories Before The Rim Of The Canyon Turns Sharply To
The North.
Below it, a vast amphitheatre is opened out with more
precipitous walls than at any other part of the Canyon.
The sweep of the
river, the mouth of Marble Canyon, the superlative richness of coloring at
this point, combined with the unequalled views of the Painted Desert, which
lies to the right, or east, afford a place of varied delight, scarce found
elsewhere on the whole Canyon rim.
Hopi Cornfields. Crossing the Little Colorado River at the Tanner Crossing,
Moenkopi is visited, and then a day's ride of forty miles over the Painted
Desert brings one to the cornfields of the Hopi, as properly they should be
called. For years, they have been known as the Moki, a term of reproach
applied in derision by the Navahos. These cornfields are a wonderful
monument to the thrift of the Hopi. White men would have starved to death
in the place, before they would have dreamed of planting corn in such an
inhospitable-looking soil. No springs or streams sufficient to irrigate
with, unversed in digging wells and pumping water to the surface, one would
have thought an ignorant Indian would have looked elsewhere before planting
his corn in such a place. But the Indian is not so ignorant. His life, from
the cradle to the grave, is one of close observation. His very existence
depends upon its exercise. He soon discovered, therefore, that there was a
natural subsoil irrigation in certain parts of this desert, where his corn
would grow.
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