TY - JOUR
AU - Davis, Robert Murray
AB - ROBER T MURRA Y DAVIS Walking along the Highland Canal in south Phoenix, you can see most of the past and all of the future of this Arizona metropolis laid out before you. The canal, lying perhaps a half-mile downslope from the base of South Mountain, is a u-shaped concrete conduit, about five feet from lip to lip, which carries water for irrigating the crops of south Phoe- nix. The construction material is new, but the concept is as old as the Hohokam Indian tribes whose partly filled ditches the first American immigrants to the region marveled at and then imitated in order to raise crops, first for subsistence, then for export. More obviously than in most places, water is the source and cen- ter of life. Here, in the early morning, Gambel's quail, single head- feathers curling forward, scurry toward the canal and walk care- fully down the slopes to drink. Small groups of doves fly overhead or perch on the telephone wires, staying close to the water. In De- cember, one can see a few ducks too tired or lazy to migrate farther south. Access roads on either side allow for maintenance, but mostly they are traversed 
TI - Holding Back the Desert
JF - ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
DO - 10.1093/isle/9.1.203
DA - 2002-01-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/holding-back-the-desert-8rEcHV3kmD
SP - 203
EP - 205
VL - 9
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -