Follow Boone and Crockett Club member William T. Hornaday on his month-long expedition in November 1907 to the uncharted lavascape of Arizona and Mexico to an area known as the Pinacate. Hornaday is joined by John Phillips who had accompanied him two years earlier in the Great North. You'll once again revel in their adventures with the author's entertaining prose as they encounter interesting characters, craters, cacti, and collect desert sheep for the Carnegie Museum.

Follow Boone and Crockett Club member William T. Hornaday on his month-long expedition in November of 1907 to the uncharted lavascape of southern Arizona and northern Mexico to an area known as the Pinacate region. Hornaday is joined by John M. Phillips who had accompanied him two years earlier in the Great North, chronicled in “Camp-Fires in the Canadian Rockies”. You’ll once again revel in their adventures with the author’s entertaining prose as they encounter interesting characters, extraordinary craters, amazing cacti, and collect desert sheep for the Carnegie Museum.

An excerpt from Hornaday’s Preface...

Naturally, the animal and plant life of the Pinacate region was as much unknown as its geography; hence our combination of botanist, zoologist, sportsman, and geographer. In any wild country, that is “a good hand to draw to,” and with the three jolly good fellows whose company I shared, I could enjoy exploring any country this side of the Styx. Indeed, I would take my chances with them beyond it.

Ever since it was my good fortune to see the Rocky Mountain big-horn at its culminating point in British Columbia, I had been keenly desirous of studying that species at the point where its progress southward is stopped by fierce heat, and scanty food and water. It seemed to me that in the Pinacate region we might in all probability find one of the jumping-off places of the genus Ovis in North America; which we did.

Camp-Fires on Desert and Lava is a part of the B&C Classics series launched in 2012 by the Boone and Crockett Club. Each book in the series was authored by a member of B&C in the late 1800s or early 1900s and was hand-selected by a committee of vintage hunting literature experts. Readers will be taken back to a time when hunting trips didn’t happen over a weekend, but were adventures spanning weeks, months, even years.

CHAPTER I - MOVING PICTURES OF THE IRON TRAIL

Pinacate, the Mystery—A Desert Experience and an Exploration—Dr. Daniel Trembly MacDougal—Moving Pictures of the Southwest-Four State Corners in One Day—The Threshold of the Great Desert Region—New Mexico—Two Oases—El Paso, and the Small Rio Grande—The Dreariest Deserts—Arrival at Tucson.

CHAPTER II - TUCSON, AND THE DESERT BOTANICAL LABORATORY

The Amphitheatre of Tucson—A Demoralized Compass—The Santa Cruz River—The Flavour of Mexico—The Yaqui Indian and His Industry—Impressions of Tucson—The University of Arizona—The Hand of the Carnegie Institution of Washington—The Desert Botanical Laboratory, Its Plant, and Its Problems.

CHAPTER III - TRAILING INTO A NEW WORLD

Our Social Register—A Model Outfit—A New and Different World—An Encounter with Indians—Our First Accident Averted—A Cattle Ranch Around a Desert Well—Animal Life of the First Day—The First Camp-Fire.

CHAPTER IV - FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF AN ARBOREAL DESERT

The Frame of Mind—The Nursery Idea—Strange Association of Plains and Mountains—Desert Amphitheatres—Unique Granite Mountains—The Arroyo and Its Uses—Millions of Specimen Shrubs and Trees—A Flood Basin.

CHAPTER V - A DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN

The Lost Cactus Garden—The Beautiful Palo Verde—An Unworked Table Decoration—The Deadly Mistletoe—The Acacia, or “Cat-Claw” Thorn—The Unique and Wonderful Ocatilla—A Bouquet of Green Wands—The Octopus of the Desert—The Ironwood Tree—The Omnipresent Creosote Bush, and Its Purpose.

CHAPTER VI - UNROLLING THE PANORAMA OF THE DESERT

Fine Weather, Hot and Cold—The Best Kind of a Wash—Two Ravens Pester Our National Emblem—Coyote Mountain and Well-Hayes's Well and the “Well Ahead”—A Narrow Escape—A Papago Indian Village—Tank-Water and Well-Water—Camp on the Santa Rosa Plain—Animal Life—The Passe South-western Indian—The Organ-Pipe Cactus

CHAPTER VII - FROM THE QUIJOTOA PASS TO THE MEXICAN OASIS

The Cubo Valley—A Typical Flood Basin—The Prize Giant Cactus—A Beautiful Camp at Wall's Well—The Ajo Lily—Montezuma's Head—Down the Ajo Valley—A Lava Ridge—The Grave of a Murdered Mexican—Across the Boundary and into Mexico.

CHAPTER VIII - THE SONOYTA OASIS

An Isolated Community—Sketch of Sonoyta—Judge Traino Quiroz and His Family—The Sorrows of an Amateur Photographer—Life in Sonoyta—Fruits—Absence of Grafters—Our Official Entrance into Mexico—Lieutenant Jesus Medina and the Fiscal Guard—An Annoying Slip of a Pen—Mr. Jeff Milton, Inspector of Immigration—A Man of Many “Gun” Episodes.

CHAPTER IX - A SMALL DEER HUNT TO THE CUBABI MOUNTAINS

Cubabi Peak—Coyote and Skunk—Rain in the Desert—Disagreeable Trait in Mexican Rural Guides—A Fertile Mountain Valley—Enter Coues White-Tailed Deer—The Repression of Charlie—Death of a Doe—Its Size and Food Supply—A Down-pour and Darkness on the Desert—Mr. Sykes Comes in.

CHAPTER X - DOWN THE SONOYTA TO THE LAVA

The Start Westward—Bad Mules—“The Devil's Road”—A Ruined Hacienda—A Lonesome Little Cemetery—We Meet Mr. Daniels—The Sonoyta River in Flood—The Water-Storage Cactus—A Rattlesnake in Camp—Quitovaquita, on the Boundary—Rube Daniels's Passion for Powder—An Accident—A Japanese Incident—Pinacate from Afar—Another Rattlesnake in Camp.

CHAPTER XI - AN EVENTFUL DAY AT THE EDGE OF THE LAVA

The Finest Organ-Pipes and a Red-Tailed Hawk—The Alkali Plain—The Ocatilla's Flower—View of Pinacate—A Much-Perforated Plain—The First Volcano Crater—A Circus with Prong-Horned Antelopes—My Locoed Coyote—The Malpais Plain—A Bridge to Cross a Ditch—Lost Wagons and Benighted Men—A Bivouac in the Desert—Rescued in Spite of Ourselves—A Long Night Ride.

CHAPTER XII - THE PANORAMA OF MacDougal PASS AND VOLCANO

In the Tule Desert—Farther Than Ever from Pinacate—The Corner of a Vast Volcanic Area—A Weird Cyclorama—Monument No. 180—A River of Verdure—Pathfinding Along the Edge of the Lava—A Volcanic Curiosity—A Great Choya Field—The Sand Ridge—A Galleta Meadow—The Doctor's Garden—Fresh Mountain Sheep Tracks—The Papago Tanks, Found in the Dark—Mr. Sykes Finds a Huge Crater—Nature's Planting on the Crater Floor—Two Rifle Shots.

CHAPTER XIII - THE PAPAGO TANKS AND THE LAVA FIELDS

An Unpleasant Episode at MacDougal Crater—Mr. Daniels Leaves Us—By Pack-Train Across the Lava—The Papago Tanks—Aqueducts Through the Lava—Our Little Oasis—The White Brittle-Bush—Vegetable Life on the Lava.

CHAPTER XIV - EXTINCT VOLCANOES AND MOUNTAIN SHEEP

A Blank Sheep Hunt to the Author's Mountains—Mr. Milton Scores With Two Sheep—Mr. Phillips Kills Two Rams—The Clover-Leaf Crater—The Sykes Crater—Awful Lava Cones—The Dead Ram and Its Surroundings—Mr. Phillips Tells the Story of the Rainbow Rams.

CHAPTER XV - DOGS IN CAMP

Doubtful Dog Experiments—The Troubles of Bob—The Troubles of Bob's Friends—A Dog with no Savvey—Rex and Rowdy—A Canine Glutton—Rowdy's Contract at the Papago Tanks—His Waterloo—The Sickest Dog on Record—The Bad Break of Rex.

CHAPTER XVI - THE CACTUS DISPLAY, FROM TUCSON TO PINACATE

Desert Plant Life More Interesting than Animal Life—The Cacti—The Giant Cactus—Its Culmination at Comobabi—Diminution Southward and Westward—Structure—The Organ-Pipe Cactus—The Finest Specimen—The Barrel Cactus and Its Water Supply—A Demonstration Beside the Trail—Cactus Candy—Small Forms of Echinocactus—Bigelow's Accursed Choya—The Pain of an Encounter—Mr. Sykes's Accident—Strength of Spines—The Tree Choya—Opuntias—Leafless Bushes with Water—Storage Stems.

CHAPTER XVII - A JOURNEY OVER THE LAVA AND ANOTHER TO THE GULF

Work on Specimens—Arroyos—Awful Lava Ridges and Lava Plains—Mutiny in the Line—The Gulf of California—Two Antelopes Killed on a Lava Plain—The Highway to Pinacate—The Tule Tanks, sans Tules—Our Camp—Mr. Sykes Goes to the Gulf.

CHAPTER XVIII - A GREAT DAY WITH SHEEP ON PINACATE

A Scattered Party—The Distant “Cut Bank”—View from 1,000 Feet Elevation—A Lost Aneroid and a Maze of Coat-Pockets—The Choya Peak—Hard Travelling for Human Feet—Two Sheep Sighted—A Run for Them—Bad Shooting and a Badly Rattled Sportsman—Mr. Phillips Apologizes for Killing His “Bunger”—Chase of a Wounded Ram—Success at Last—Moonrise over Pinacate Peaks—The Lava Field by Moonlight.

CHAPTER XIX - THE ASCENT OF PINACATE

By Saddle Horse to the Foot of the Peaks—Weakness of the Camera on the Lava Beds—The Notch—Mountain Sheep—Pinacate Peak at Last—More Mountain Sheep—A Fearless Band and a Great View of It—General Aspect of the Peak—A Great Extinct Crater—The Climb to the Summit—A Wild Revel on the Top—The Cyclorama Below—The Sad End of the Sonoyta River—“The Big Red Peak”—A Circle of Photographs—Our Cairn and Record—The Doctor Gets His Sheep—The Flight from the Summit—Three Decide to “Lie Out” Near the Two Rams.

CHAPTER XX - “LYING-OUT” ON PINACATE, AND THE FINAL SHEEP

A Camp-Fire in a Lava Ravine—A Dinner of Broiled Liver—The Resources of the Party and Their Distribution—The Gunny Sack as a Producer of Warmth—Mr. Phillips Takes Advantage of a Sleeping Comrade—The Coyotes Spoil a Museum Sheep—“Why Don't You Shoot that Ram?”—Curiosity Long Drawn Out—An Unexpected Trophy—Mr. Sykes Stalks a Mountain Sheep on Pinacate.

CHAPTER XXI - THE YARN OF THE BURNING OF THE “HILDA”

The Characteristics of Mr. Godfrey Sykes—A Versatile and Remarkable Man—The Yarn of the Hilda—A Quick Transformation Scene on a Desolate Shore—A Foot-Race with Death—Impassable Mountains—Seven Hard-Tack for 160 Miles—A Tough Coyote—A Fish in Time—Swimming the Colorado—A Bean-Pot at Last—The End of Charlie McLean.

CHAPTER XXII - NOTES ON THE MAMMALS BETWEEN TUCSON AND THE GULF

Desert Conditions—The Pack-Rat and Its Wonderful Nests—The Kangaroo Rat—Harris's Chipmunk—No Arboreal Squirrels—Jack Rabbit and Cotton-Tail—The Coyote—Prong-Horned Antelope—Deer—Peccary.

CHAPTER XXIII - NOVEMBER BIRD LIFE IN THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN

The Disappointing Road-Runner—Gambel's Quail and Its Pursuit—The Wisdom of the Cactus Wren—The Crissal Thrasher's Nest—Western Red-Tailed Hawk—The Red-Shafted Flicker—Nests in the Giant Cactus—The Crows at the Papago Tanks, and a Murder—Doves—A Bittern Fishing—The Mud-Hen of Sonoyta—Scarcity of Reptiles in November.

CHAPTER XXIV - THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP OF MEXICO

Bird's-eye View of the Genus Ovis—Its Vanishing Point at Pinacate—Straight Ovis canadensis—The Making of a New Form—Colours—Size—The Feet—The Pelage—The Horns, Skull, and Teeth—Habits—Geographical Distribution in Mexico—Summary of Facts and Conclusions.

CHAPTER XXV - THE FLIGHT FROM PINACATE

Mountains Being Buried by Sand—The Meeting of Desert and Lava—Antelopes for Mr. Phillips—The Represa Tank—The Mexican Wagon Wins Out—Heading for Gila Bend—The Ajo Valley—Gila Bend—A Dinner Fit for the Gods—Back to Civilization.

A SPORTSMEN'S PLATFORM