air. This skillful movement brought his command a long distance to the northwest and in a broken, mountainous country. In this section he concealed his command, moving still further to the west under cover of the Santa Catarena Mountains and timber and the darkness of the night with as much celerity and secrecy as an Indian or a panther. Gradually bearing south, in the gray of the morning he passed to the west and south of Fort Lowell, thus encircling that military post as he rode rapidly through the town of Tucson, about eight miles from Fort Lowell, while the occupants of that town were wrapped in blissful slumber. Knowing he would be pursued by troops from Lowell he made rapidly to the southwest for twenty-five miles to the Santa Rita Mountains, where he again scattered his command and by a series of false movements, decoys and skillful maneuvers, threw his pursuers off his trail and threatened Fort Huachuca, and while pretending to circle that post to the south he suddenly disappeared and, moving west a good distance, made a forced march across country and surprised Fort Bowie. Under the rule he was allowed to remain ten days for rest. The colonel commanding Fort Huachuca reported this young officer as having disregarded his orders and that he had not circled that post, little thinking that the maneuvers were intended as a blind. After quietly resting ten days Lieutenant Johnson apparently made all preparations to move north from Bowie to Grant. After leaving the former post he suddenly reversed his course and moving rapidly and secretly across the country, succeeding in getting his command within a thousand yards of the flagstaff of Fort Huachuca, surprised and captured the post and garrison of six troops of cavalry. It is needless to say that the chagrin and envy felt by the officers of the garrison was very great, for they were a proud, spirited and enterprising class of men. In fact, the feeling amounted almost to hostility against this officer, though they were very gracious to him and extended to him every civility and hospitality during his stay of ten days for rest and recuperation. He had still a most difficult problem to solve. He was more than one hundred miles from his own station, and when once he started from Huachuca he was sure to be pursued by the picked troopers from that garrison, and in addition to this he must contend against the vigilance of those on the lookout from Bowie and Grant, for he must return to his own post either as victor or captive. After a good rest and ample time to study the maps and topography of the country between Huachuca and Grant, Lieutenant Johnson marched out at twelve o'clock, noon, for his movement against Fort Grant. Under the rule he was allowed eighteen hours before he could be pursued-six hours of day and twelve hours of night. Sleuth hounds never tugged harder at the leash, thoroughbred racers never champed the bit with more impatience than did those Fourth Cavalry troopers to be set loose on the trail or in pursuit of the successful raiders, while there was the wildest excitement concerning its success on the part of the pursued party, and the most intense enthusiasm on the part of the pursuers. Fortunately the command was entrusted to an able and experienced cavalry officer, Captain A. Wood, who demonstrated his skill and good judgment, who instead of following the circuitous trail and false maneuvers, with the disadvantage of a stern chase, moved directly across country by a forced march of seventy miles to a pass in a range of mountains that he believed Lieutenant Johnson would pass through but not where any of his trails would indicate he was going. Towards this gap Captain Wood's troop marched at a rapid pace and reached it as the sun was low in the afternoon. Now the thing to be accomplished was to find if Lieutenant Johnson's command was concealed in the vicinity. In these maneuvers it was not uncommon for the commanding officer to bribe the citizens to make false reports, or to give them erroneous information in order that they might convey the same misleading intelligence to their pursuers. Lieutenant Johnson had evidently missed one civilian for, as Captain Wood was looking for signs of the pursued party or for some trace of the raiders, he discovered a lone missionary traveling through that country, who, on being questioned whether he had seen anything of a command of soldiers, stated that he had passed a small company just going into camp in a little pocket of the mountains about five miles away. This was a revelation and a boon for this accomplished cavalry leader and within a very short time his bugles sounded the command for Lieutenant Johnson's surrender after his very long and very successful raid. Thus, Captain Wood's good judgment, enterprise and hard ride of seventyfive miles was rewarded with most gratifying and most creditable success. This ended one of the most skillful of the interesting practical field maneuvers. Lieutenant Johnson is a fair representative of those Virginians like Stuart, Ashby and other brillant cavalry leaders. He informed me that while a part of his plan was to capture the department commander, in which he was, however, not successful, he believed if he could destroy the telegraph lines he could make a successful raid from Arizona to the Atlantic seaboard and avoid the troops in the intermediate districts of the country. It is to be regretted that the untimely death by a cruel and painful disease has deprived the service of so accomplished an officer as Captain Wood, whose record, during the great war, on the Western frontier and in the field of military literature was most creditable and valuable. The results attained in this field maneuvering were most pleasing. The excellent judgment and intelligence displayed by the commanding officers of the districts of observation in the disposition of their troops, the use made of the means of observation and communication, the zeal and skill exhibited by officers in the field, and the very great interest taken in these operations by the troops, were all most gratifying. CHAPTER XLII. THE ARID REGION AND IRRIGATION. THE CONDITIONS OF THE ARID REGION-A RICH SOIL, BUT A LACK OF RAINFALL-WHAT THE AVING crossed the imaginary line which divides the old and wellknown farming region, to which we are all accustomed, from the newer West, we instantly encounter new conditions, requiring a system of farming new to the ideas of the Saxon. There is a vast tract there where the rainfall is so small that it imposes new conditions, though the soil is rich and the climate much more favorable to agriculture than that of New England, or even that of the Middle States. This region is now known as the "arid belt," and its boundaries are well defined. Its extent is enormous. It includes Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, with those portions of North and South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska which lie west of the one hundredth meridian, with large portions of southern and western Texas, and all of California south of the thirty-ninth parallel. The eastern two-thirds of Oregon are also included, with one-third of Washington. The area of this vast territory includes 1,340,000 square miles. In 1890 the irrigated portion of it was about one-half of one per cent of the whole. Associated with the lack of rainfall is a dryness of the air which desiccates the foliage of vegetation, and in much of this region a scanty growth, accustomed to the vicissitudes of the climate, alone survives. The clouds evaporated from the Pacific are precipitated on the western coast. Those of the Atlantic rain themselves out on the eastern. Those formed by the Great Lakes and the Gulf seldom pass beyond one hundred miles westward of the west line of Missouri. There is a sub-humid region lying on the borders of the area given. The standard of humidity which has been fixed for aridness is twenty inches of rainfall, or less, annual average for a period of years. There is no region within the boundaries of the United States where it may be said never to rain at all. Sometimes, at irregular intervals, on the high plains of the west the rainfall within a few hours is of immense volume. There is a want of seasonableness and regularity, and many months, or even sometimes an entire year, may pass without a copious rain. There are, therefore, in the sub-arid area fine crop-years occasionally. These fruitful years come still more frequently in the eastern portions of the belts. An entire failure of all crops does not often occur in the latter region, and a full crop may at long intervals be made in all except the dryest areas of the vast territory named. During the past thirty years most of the facts stated have been learned experimentally by actual settlers. The universal American enterprise carried thousands of families at least to the edge of the arid region, and many hundreds of them into its very heart. There is an unwritten history of these enterprises. Meantime science has not been idle, and the labors of practical meteorologists have defined and mapped the boundaries of aridness, and have discovered its causes. There is but one remedy -irrigation. As stated, the idea of farming by irrigation is new to the Saxon mind, climate which has, perhaps, no parallel in the world, found new sources of water. The highest resources of modern engineering science were applied, and mechanical skill of the first order was brought to bear. Artesian wells were sunk where the existence of water beneath the surface had never before been suspected, and flowing wells, which surprise the eye and seem miraculous, water hundreds of the richest acres of the world. Tunnels have |