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Show Ex. Doc. No. 41. 473 In the evening, •at a quarter past t n o'dock, am lcor of <lazzling splendor clash d <l c ros the sky; its path wasp rprndi cular to the horir.on, and pa ssc<l through the head of the eou st('llation draco; the brightness wa .. u<'h as to e c llp . e the li~ht of th ) candl e by which I was writing; f'tve minutes aft •rWiHtls I heard a report like th<lt of a di:tant canuon. OctobeT QQ.-We now turn <1 our fares castwa.nl, as Acoma is the roo t western of the New Mcxiean towns. )l;uiti, whieh, in a direet 1inc, is said to he bnt SO miles to the wesl, i situatecl on the tributary waters of the "Rio Gila." Our mule had wandere<l o[ a grca.t distan ce, antl, owing to the difficulty of catching them, we did not leave Acoma until 10 o'clo ·k. We th n star:ed for" Rito," a Spani h town. I r mainc<l behind some tinae, in order to sketch one of the pa ·sr. to the town of Acoma. This one only is practical for foot passrngers. There are, bcsidrs, two others, one of which can be pa. ·d on horseback, but the principal one is that by which w e went up yesterday . Our cour. e, for the fust two milcR, led us off in a south astern direction. In this short distance we <leseendcd rapi<lly, and having gotten safely over a clangerou road, we found ourselves much lower than we were ycF:lcrday. W had reached a Recond level, below that of the light red sanclstone of Acoma. The high escarpments betwc n which we passed, pr s •nlcd ftne views of the superposition of the different slrata. Uppermost is the hard and compact sandstone, uch as forms the rock of A ·oma; then comes a hud whitish clay; then a clark sandstone, of a red color; and finally, a redtl.ish brown, f rruginous, and sandy clay. We now travelled northeast, and parallel to our rout from Laguna to Acoma; and although not more than four or f1ve miles ,listant from our course of the preceding day, yet the country presents a new aspect. Having reached this second mesa, and being forcetl by our route to travel close to the fool of a high es carpment, we coul<l not sec over it, and therefore coul<l not dis ·over ~lny of the points we had a lr ady noticed. Several times the trail we were following gave o u l; at 1 ast, quite 1 ate, we slruck a fresh trace of a carreta. We followed this trace until night closed upon us. There was no moon, and dark clotllls dimmed the star.; we all c1ismounlcn, ancl in silence endeavored to keep upon the path. Aided by frequent Hashes of lightning, we kept the track, and urgcll on our jade<l animals, hoping soon to reach a stream. At length our wagon arrived at a slight sandy acclivity, where the mule~, worn oul by the d ifficu 1ties of the road, com pI clc 1 y broke down. II ere we encamped; on a sand knoll we pitehed our tent, and th n sent out one of the men in search of water, for we had not seen one drop smce we left our morning's camp. We now lit a cheerful fire of artemistas, and then sat clown to a supper of delicious ribs of roasted mutton, such as is only founcl in the mountain region ~f New Mexico. We were hardly comfortably seate(l, when a ternble squall of wind arose, accompani d by a slight rain. In the · mid.st of the squall our tent blew over, and we were obl~ged to reiix 1t several times. We luckily had some extra mule p1ckets that |