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Show 466 Ex. Doc. No. 41. After marching eight miles, we arrivetl at a plar~ ~hcr.c the road forkrd, and taking the plaiucst, we follow<•cl .· t unt.il Jt dtsappc:~red entir<·ly. It was one of the roads that the whabttants of Atnsco and A llm q 11 c r q u c t r a v c I w h r.n t h c• y go to ~ <'t ~ r e-w o? d . M ~ n y roads of this kintl, in the Ilctghborhood of 1\tcxican vdlages, frequently perplc•x and entangle the trave l ler. We 21ow bore due west, and at 4. o'elo ck rca heel the "Rio Pucrr.o." After a strict seareh up and down the river for several miles, we forme<! our ramp ncar a little pool of water, the only one"''"~ rou~< ... n... The roao we came had been very ~and y, and our mule were very much distressed by their 1abor. The vall ey of the Puerco is wide and flat, overgrown with 'Varieties of artemisias and coarse g-rass, fit only for sheep and goats. The banks of the river arc of stiff loam; they arc 10 or 12 feet high, and stand vertically. The country around is very much broken with Sand hills, that are overgrown with cedar trees, the only kind of timber to be seen, except a few cotton-wooci trees that are found in the bed of the river. South 15 ° west, 1 i c s a grand mountain, about 35 miles distant; it has two principal peaks, and its prt>sent ou tlinc great! y res em b J es that of th c Span ish peaks. October 17.-We soon found that by continuing a northerly course, we were leaving the road to Cibolleta; but as our duties re quirctl us to make a survey of the country, more with the object of finding out unknown things than of travelling known routes, we determined to follow up the PuPrco far euough to fix its course, carrying on a system of triangulation, by the means of the many high and well chara cteri sed pc ... ks that are scattered throughout the country. We bad a very toilsomr march; the sand was from 5 toG inehes deep ;_ i? many plaees our ro ad was obstru d('d by a dense growth of artcnns1as; our progress was extremely slow. At Jen g t h, about 2 o'clock, our mules gave up and we Wf'rc f'ore<•fl to halt; fortunatt•ly we were near a corn field, and I had them fed with tbe cars Hnd green lcavrs of the co rn. We searched about hopinCY to find some dwt' lling place ncar; found no signs of an~ kind,., cxcC'pt a narro\~ path that had .not been trod for a long time. The nvcns had nght of pos~css10n, and had eaten much of the co rn, and picked all the seeds out of the big pumpkins that were strewed aroun1l us . . W c now st.artcd off to reconnoitre, and found in the heel of the> nver, where tl was r:omplc•tely hidden by the hi gh banJo;, a conif·al hut, composed of l1ght poles covered with boucrbs of trees and m u d ; a 1 so a cor r ~I , b u t n o r e c c n t signs o f t h c i r h ~ v i n g b c en u ~'~fl. We c~os.scd the nvcr and as~f' IHJed a high bluff, not i ·ing r 'JMl!ns ()f butl~hugs on our way, hutlt of flat stones pla~t crcd with day. Asccnchng the bl~ff, we fouud on its hi g hc.•st portion cnclosurf'S of stone; one was cu cu lar, 3 feet in h ·ight and 10 feet in tli(lmct<>r, and ~n aprrtun' had been hdt for a doo r. Another was t"lliptical, and 1ts walls hc1d be('n quite high; besides these', there lnl<l bePn many rr ct<lngular shaped tru ct urcs. W l~ were puz2 led to conct'ivc for what purposes they had been built. They were more than half |
