| OCR Text |
Show [ 23] 26 At 3 o'clock, we l1ad reached ~he ".V ermejo," b';It w~ fo~nd no water in the river, and were obliged to proceed SIX mile~ further, where we found some pools. Here the water had a salhsh _taste, but was quite pleasant; the ground aroun? the pools was _whitened with a saline efllorescence. Here we obtamed many beautiful crystals of carbonate of lime. There were also many places ~here a dark variety of this rock appeared, bulging from the earth m con-vex masses of three or four feet in diameter . . . . Our mules seemed to relish the salt grass With wfimte gusto, a~d the water was no less pleasing to thell?-; but wood was scarce .m the vicinity of the ponds, therefore we did not feel perf~~tly satisfied, and at last were fain to have recourse to. t.Qe artemisias. 1. The "obione canescens" grows so abundant as to fill the creek bottoms, and, with the yellow wil1ow, are two of the most charac-teristic plants. . . . On the banks of the "El Rio Cafiadiano," I got a cunous vanety of" oxybaphus," delicate branching- species, and a variety of asclepias, also "renothera sin nata." Septembe'r 21.-After a march of four miles, we reached the Cimmaroncito. This stream is composed of two large branches, each of which the road crosses about sixty yards above their junction. Soon after leaving this river, we met Lieutenant Elliot, of the Missouri volunteers; he had a long train of wagons, and was on his way to Bent's to bring up the government stores that had been left there. I now procured, through the kindness of Lieutenant Elliot, a sketch of my route from this place to Santa Fe, with all the watering places and good pasture grounds marked thereon, and much verbal information that was of great value to me. I also learned that General Kearney intended leaving Santa Fe. on the 25th proximo. I therefore determined to trav~l as exped~ tiously as possible, in time to go with the army, in case my serVI? es should be required. As it was too late to reach the "Ocate" this day, I was forced to camp on the Rayada, ten miles distant fro~ the little Cimmaron; about midway we crossed the " Poiii," Which was dry, and at last reached the Rayada, which was full of excell~nt water. On this stream we had the" populus monilifera," and thickets of willow, and I got a beautiful scarlet plant, "chelone barbata," and a penstemon, with scarlet flowers. In the· afternoon, we tried to catch some prairie dogs by forcing ~hem ou~ of thei.r hole~ with water. We poured bucket after bucket Into the1r dwelhngs Without flooding them. One dog showed itself tnreeaart etdh.e mouth of its burrow, but, as soon as it saw us, again reSeptember 22.-We started at sunrise, and, before we had gone far, passed two little ril1s of clear water. Continuing our journey, W~ reac~ed a large shallow pool,. the shores of which were covered With thick saline efflorescence; the· whiteness was painful to the ~Ie. After pas~ing it, we entered a narrow gorge, the tops of the uffs 9n each Side were crowned with a stratum of amaygdaloidal t~ap of a clark purple color and vesicular. Presently we reached t e extremity of the gorge, and ascended to a "mesa" or horizon- 27 [ 23] 1 lain. and when we looked to our right hand, we saw another tha .P ta'l plain yet higher than the one we were then travelling onzond . · b fi f covered also With a bed of volcamc ·rock a out ve eet ·o n,t ha"nc kness. Keep.w g close to the f oot o f t hl'S h"1 gtu est " mesa, " m 1 we re ached the "Ocate'· " as I• t I•S a cafione d , t h at I·. s , I· s enc l ose d th high rocky walls, we were forced to go two nnles up stream ~1 rder to reach the crossing. As it was only 3 o'clock, and I ~/hopes of reaching the next camping ground before ?ark, we continued our march, although we ha~ already c?me 22 miles. We travelled until night fell upon us Without findi~g any water. I had not yet sufficiently recovered to b~ar such a JOurney, and was obliged to get into the wagon. The mght was very da~k, and we travelled along with considerable difficulty, as the dnver could scarcely see the road. At last we heard the joyful cry of water, and we found ourselves close by some fine pools, that were, fort~nately, just in the road, or we ~ould n_ot have seen then;1. This was an old camping pla ce., and m huntmg around w_e stumbled on some charred sticks, that had helped to cook the dinner of those who had preceded us, and now cooked ours. . We had now reached "ponds in the prairie," 18 m~les dist~pt from the Ocate and have made a day's journey of 40. miles, havmg come from the Rayada to the "ponds in the prairie." September 23.-W e had scarcely left our camp when the signs of civilization broke upon us; in moving along the valleys, we saw flocks of sheep, droves of horses, and large _he~ds of cattle. These . are guarded night and day by lads who, In the langua_ge of the country, are termed "pastores;" they were miserably clad 111 tatter~d blankets, and armed with bows and arrows; these and thetr big shepherd dogs constitute their sole defence,_ alt 1ough they are subject to be attacked by the Indians, and theu flocks and herds by Indians and wolves. After a march of five m'iles we reached the "Rio Moro," and passing several "corales," or ~nclosures, we at last came in sight of some adobe houses. The proprietor of one of those houses w~s an American named Boney who has since been murdered by his "peons." He invited us to 'alight and enter h_is house, where he treated us to milk cool from the cellar. In hts house there were a dozen fire-locks 'of different kinds, escopettes, fusils, rifle~, and muskets. The residents of the other houses were New Mexicans. As we passed by, they p"r offered us some "aq_uardiente, " or rI quor · I tolrl them that we did not wish any; at which they seemed !Duch surprised, crying out "V m d. no qui ere a_quard~ent~! V ~d ·. Ciertamente noes Americana." Notwithstandmg this nsk of bemg denationalized we refused the aquardiente. They then brought us some fresh ~utton that I consented to purchase, and it proved to he excellent. ' Ther~ is very good pasture grounds al.ong the ~io ~oro. T_he yalley IS from 60 to 70 miles long, and mcreases 111 width to Its JUnction with the valley of the Ca:iiadiano. Shortly after crossing the "Moro," we forded the "Rio Sepullo;" both of these streams contain an abundant supply of water. The |
