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Show TOLTECCAN. 245 " Specification In this, that the said Frank Hamilton, being intrusted with a team to transport one thousand pounds of potatoes from Santa Fe to this post, did unwarrantably dispose of three hundred pounds of the same on the way, etc., etc." He was found guilty of this, and more ; and during my stay I was daily pained at sight of him " cleaning quarters," with a most uncom-fortable bracelet attachment to his ankle. Take him for all in all, he was the most unfortunate traveling com-panion I ever had. Moral Don't go for a regular soldier ; or, if you do, don't trade government potatoes to Mexican women. Eight days I remained at Fort Wingate, and enjoyed every moment of the time. Having letters to Lieutenant S. W. Fountain, formerly of Pomeroy, Ohio, he made me comfortable at his quarters, and a full hand at his mess. Captain A. B. Kauffman, commanding the post in the absence of Colonel Wm. Redwood Price ; Lieutenant D. R. Burn-ham, of Company " H," Fifteenth United States Infantry; and Dr. R. S. Vickery, Post Surgeon, were most courteous and pleasant officials. If I had to be exiled to a Far Western fort, I don't know any other com-mand I should prefer to go with. Lieutenant H. R. Brinkerhoff, formerly of Union County, Ohio, also assisted me to much information as to the surrounding country ; and he and his estimable lady made my stay more like a renewal of home- life than one would have thought possible in this wilderness. Fort Wingate is nearly two hundred miles west of Santa Fe, di-rectly at the head of the Rio Puerco of the West. Along this stream a sloping valley can be followed down to the Colorado Chiquito (" Little,'') and down that to the main Colorado this post being thus on the " Pacific slope." Just south of the fort rises a rugged spur of the Sierra Madre, from which Bear Spring ( or Ojo del Oso) sends out a cold, clear stream, sufficient to turn a mill- wheel. Two miles below the channel is dry; the loose red earth has drunk it all. With this stream the soldiers irrigrate a few acres of garden, producing most of the vegetables except potatoes. These can not be grown in the greater part of New Mexico ; the vines grow night and day, and the result is, in each hill a handful of dwarfed tubers, about the size of chestnuts. The latitude of Wingate is 35 28'; the elevation 6,600 feet. Hence the summers are short and the nights cool. Corn will not silk ; wheat is generally cut off in the flower. Only the short- lived plants come to perfection. The records show that drought has been increasing for |
