Modern science has shown the tracks of the storms and partially explains the reasons for this dry and barren nature of this region.

When rains do come they are so out of the regular order, that they are called cloud-bursts or waterspouts, and the washes in the canons and their mouths show how great has been the volume of water that sometimes rushed down the slope.

If clouds at a warm or moderate temperature float against these snow peaks all the water they contain is suddenly precipitated.

The country is an arid one and unless wealth should appear in the shape of mines, the country can never be inhabited.

We considered ourselves very fortunate in finding the little pools and holes of water which kept us alive.