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Show [ 23] 42 • though beans, pump_kins, melons, and. red pepper, are raised to. some extent. The hdls are covered w1th ve.ry good grass, which. furnishes subsistence to herds of cattle and horses, as well as to• fine flock's of sheep and goats. In them lie the principal wealth of the inhabitants. Taos is, by nature, almost isolated from the remainder of New Mexico. On the east rise the high peaks of the main Rocky mountain chain, whil st a spur of the same range puts out on the south. quite to the banks of the Rio del Norte. On the north and west. are the high bluffs which mark the beginning of the extensive "llanos," or table lands. A wagon road of some difficulty has been opened through the southern spur, which leads to Santa Fe, though. the communication is usually kept up by the shorter mule-road,, over the highest point of the spur. Setting out from San· Fernandez at 10 o'clock, we travelled fifteen miles in a southwesterly direction, nearly parallel with the course of "El Rio de Taos," and over an undulating country, the gravelly rolls of which were everywhere variegated with clumps of cedar and scattering pinons. But, from this point to Santa Fe,. there is no grass. Crossing a small stream of clear water tHat flows from a fine spring, we entered a narrow defile and commenced. the ascent of the mountain. For 2~ miles the bridle-path· is extremely tortuous and rugged, and rendered difficult by numerous. frag~ents o~ rock. The mountain rises 2,000 or 2,509 feet above. the nver at 1ts_ base, and is composed of a hard slaty rock, which break~ down mto angu.lar fragments, with sharp cutting edges~ The d1p of the slaty formations is to the southwest and nearly vertical. When the bro_ken fra&m€'nts are rei~oved, the rock presents. numer.ous angui~r po;nts, which stand out hke spikes, and make the ra_velhng very .Jdficult for animal_s. The road leads along the sum· m1t for some dtstance, and from It we had a fine view of the canon ?f the Rw del Norte, and the extensive table land through which It passes. Far as the eye could reach, the brown' and burnt table land stretched northward and westward, unbroken save by the deep. ch_annels worn by the running waters. Turm_ng sotith~ard, the bridle- path again descends for two or ~hree miles1 leading thro~!Sh a ~uccession of mountain gl(ns, unt!l ~t emerges Into the beautiful valley of El Rio de San Luisio. Th1s Is a strea~ ?f pure water that flows from the mountains, affording water to nngate a few fields. v1 noticed a few h?uses in the valley above the crossing, but the a~6age of Embndo lS about. a mile below. There we found some 8 ?r 400 of the meanest ktnd of rancheros, who seem to derive a ubsistence from the narrow fields and some few flocks of goats and sheep. There being but little pastura~e they are unable to raise many horned ~attle or horses, though thei~ goats manage very well !~ PlCk a subsistence from amongst the rocks. We stopped for the /ght at the h~u~e of Senora Valdes, and, after a ride of 29 miles, ound g_oats mtlk and "tortillas" palatable. It bemg the f k' · 1 . . . season or ma mg molasses, they were all busy ill. aymg ln a wmter's supply. 43 [ 23] They cut the stalks of the maize, or Indian corn, and, after strip. ping it of the leaves, pound it with heavy wooden mallets until it is reduced to a pulp; after steaming it sufficiently, they express the juice by mea.ns of a rude. press, and _then evapora~e it to the ~roper consistence In eacthen Jars. Leavmg Embuda m the mornmg, a half hour's ride b'rought us to the fie]cl on which the ga11ant Captain l3urgwin, U. S. dragoons, so signally defeated the united Mexican and Indian forces, in January, 1847. The road here is so narrow, that two horses cannot walk abreast, and it is flanked on each side by high precipices. . T,he rocks rise in abrupt masse~.; on either side; on the west terminating in a level table, capped with a sheet of lava. Amidst these confused masses of broken sandstone and lava, numerous cedars and "pinons" have caught root; and here it was that the combined forces lay in ambush to surprise Captain .Burgwin's little detachment. After passing the battle-field, the road continues to follow up the dry bed of a mountain stream, until it reaches the summit, 3 miles from Embudo, where it again clescends through a similar ravine_, to the 'town of "La Joya." This is the most northern settlement on the Rio del Norte. Just here the stream ·breaks from the rocky canon, and the hitherto pent up chan~el spreads out into a valley near half a mile in width. This marks the beginning of the river settlements, which may be regarded as continuous for i50 miles. On the plain we saw corn and wheat, and, for the first time, found orchards of peach and apricot trees. Melons, too, were abundant, but of inferior quality, whilst hanging in festoons, the . bright colored pepper, or "Chili colorado," adorned every house. . Our road now lay along the east bank of the ~io flel Norte; sometupes passing through the bottom itself, and sometimes ascending tht! gravelly' bluff. On our left hand the country rolls away to the h.ase of the Rocky mountains, presenting little else than a succesSion of gravelly hill s, whose sides were covered with dwarf cedars. On the right hand, or west bank of the river, the high bluff of the ta~le land reaches quite to the water's edge, some 3 or 400 feet in hetght. The broken section shows a formation of horizontal sandstone, capped with the dark ~olored vesicular lava. · .This lava sheet appears to have extended over a vast expanse of countr~. It forms the capping or upper formation of all the table land.s m Upper New Mtxico, on both sides of the mountains; and 1ts broken fragments are ev~ry where strewed along the beds <>f the streams, giving an air of loneliness and de3o1ation to the scen.ery .. _ The next settlement, or village, is "Los Luceros," a town of l!ttle Importance. F1fteen miles below "La Joya," is a town, or pueblo, named San Juan. :The houses here !lre built of mud and palisades. They appear to_ have a dry trench, in which a row of palisades, from 6 to 8 m_cbes m thickness, is planted; the interstices of which are daubed Wtth !he clayey earth from which they make the "adobes" that are used m building their walls. They enter into their houses through the top, by means of move- |