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Show 578 Ex. Doc. · No. 41. · f old it contains traverse the whole mass. I saw in the ~uf~h;)y~n: over the mine,' masses of the blue 1imestone(su pposed 0 b:r cutaceous· the water hau fille•l many of the abandoned cha~~ 0 s of the mi~e. in others, 1 he flies had per~hed them~el vesd 10 ~:at numbers to' pass the winter. Tl1c fort wlnc~ was bmlt. to e? end the mine~, was built in the shape of an equilateral tnangle, with round towers at the corners; it was built of adobe, :vith walls_ four feet thick; the fort was still in tolerable preservat10n; s.ofe remains of the furnaces were left, and p il ~s of cinders, but no Hhea could be formed of the manner of smelttng the ore, except t at charcoal in quantities was used; several hundred dollars' worth of ore had been got ready for smelting whet~ the p~ace w:as abandoned. McKnight who was for nine years a pnsoner tn Chthuahua, made a f 0 r tun c here an d a ban d one d t h e m i n e s i n co. n seq u en c e o f the Apache Indiat;s cutting o[ his supplies; at one t~me,. they took 80 pack mules from hi~, (authority Carson;) t}1e mt.:.e .1s ver! extenl sive anu doubtless 1mmenseJy valuable. ~ aler IS abunuant, an( past~re fine, and many lands which will f~rnish br~ausluff ?~ ?ultivation; wood is very abundant, and particularly m t~e V1~1111ty. Leaving the copper mines, the rocky masses soon show uon w. the greatest abundance; then going west, we came to the blue Junestone, standing vertical, rangi~g s_outh, and bent ~o as to lay level west; through the srams of this It me. lone, _some 1gne?u~ rocks hao been in terj ccteu, and occasional masses of uon ore, s1md ar to that seen on the blue and faLe Wachita rivers; then we came to _a mountain mass of the same rock as of the copper mine.; from this, westward, we came upon an amygdaloid of all sorts of igneous or vole ani c r o c k s ; t h e hi II s '':ere n o t very 1oft y , so that, g !'a .<1 u a l.l y , we passed the great backbone of America w1thout percetvmg It-the di vid in g ridge bet ween the Atlantic and Pacific. The gen e:al set out to march 15 miles, to San Vicentia spring; but, find1ng no grass, he came on, expecting to find water, a Spanish guide saiu , at three leagues, but it proved to be 15 miles further, where we all arrived after night. Before we left the copper mines, some Apaches sb.owed themselves; and, as we came off, they rode upon a hill, made a smoke, and as we got opposite them on the road, com· menced calling out to us "not to be afraid, but come on;" we replied, "it is you that are afraid; why don't you come on?" they then approached, but motioned us all back but the guide, (Carson,) until he had a talk, and satisfied them. Some of our mules gave out to-day; three Apaches came to camp. Distance, 30 miles. October 20.-The Apaches came to us this morning, as we did not start until late. Red Sleeve came with fifteen or twenty per- ... I I • Ex. Doc. No. 41. 579 sons-some women; they ride small but fine horses. The high roads leading from this mountain to Sonora and California show whence they came; they are partly clothed like the Spaniards, with wide drawers, moccasins, and leggings to the knee; they carry a knife freq uen t1 y in the right legging, on the outside; their m occasins have turned up square toe ; their hair is long, and mostly they have no head- dress; some have hats, some have fantastic helmets; they have some guns, but are mostly armed with lances and bows and arrows; their arrows pointed with stone points about this size . Carson remarked yesterday, that he never knew how fine a weapon the bow and arrow was until he had them fired at him in the night; at that time they are more sure than firearms, for they are fired by the feel rather than the arms. The v ege tation westward from the copper mines grows thinner until we get to the sierra Del Burrv, which is a mountain covered black with forest growth. The pine is found hereabouts, live oak, (three kind ,) the grama grass, and other fine grasses, some resembling timothy. A rain storm passed by the l1ead" of the Gila last night; it is the first we have seen since we left Santa Fe, although high winds and heavy lightning betoken etl J is tan t sto:-m s once or t wicc before, we have not yet been sprinkled upon. Trading mules is dull work with the Apaehcs. Red Sleeve, Black Knife, and Lasacly, are the three principal chiefs of the Apaches on the west of the Del Norte; Gomez is the head man of those on the cast of the Del Norte. There is another band about southwest of this; on the Purgatory mountain is another band. Th · Apache near Taos are of the same stock with these; their whole people have not be n together for a long time. The general gave Red Sleeve and two other chiefs papers to ho·w he had talked wHh them, and that they had promused perpetual friendship with the Ameri cans; they seemed all anxious to conciliate the Americans; and they did not forget the Shawnee . The copper mines are in their country, which lies north of the thirty-se cond degree of north latitude. Marched at 12, meridian, and clescendecl a narrow, winding valley, with a bri ·k running stream two or three feet wide meandering through it, with a few trees occasion a] I y, and very tall grass; we found two small patches where the Apaches had made corn. The hills were high on each side, composed of rugged masses of volcanic rock, and very few trees. We followed this creek for five miles, and fell upon the famous Gi la, a beautiful mountain stream abou l thirty feet wide an,] on c foot deep on the sha Uows, with clear ·water and pebbly bed fringed with trees and hemmed ~n by mountains, the bottom not more than a mile wide. The signs of beaver, the bear, the deer, and the turkey, besides the tracks of herds of Indian horses, were plain to be seen on the sanu. We came uown the river two and a half miles more, about south, and encamped at the head of one of its canons, preparatory to a long journey over rocky hills to-morrow. Northward from where .we struck the river is an open co untry 1 yin g west of a very h tg h mountain, called the Gila mountain, in which it is said the salt |