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Show ' [ 23] 106 Sierra Madre; ~md, being an inh~bitant of chapparal or thorny thickets, he rarely ventures beyo~cl Its .borcler_s. Although. the toes of this bird are disposed in oppo~1te pans, ~s 1n other spe.c1es of his family, yet the outer hind toe bemg rev~rs1~le, a.nd ~f great flexi· bility, is, in either position, aptly apphed ~n clu~b1ng or perching, as well as on the grruncl.. Th_us, he at t1mes p1tch~s .along the grounn in irregular hops; and a~am, when t?e. outer toe 1s thrown forward he runs smoothly and w1th such rapHIIty as always to be able to' elude a dog in the chapparal, without taking wing. HP feeds on coleoptera, and almost every species of insects; and near the Nueees, where the snails, "lymnaceus stagnalis," abound, it is greedily eaten," &c. · I have ·only to add, that this bird is found throughout the Raton })ass, and some individual 5pecimens have been seen on the Arkan· a~ riv~r, a few mil es to the west of Bent's fort. January 12.-In some of the ravines near our camp, and in the calions of th e mountains, there is still to be founLl sufficient grass .for "mulacla~," not more numerous than ours. We, therefore, drove our mu1c...:s into the mountain, and then set ourselves to work to repair the broken axlctree. As we had carefully treasured the pieces of wood that we found on the road, we soon obtained a piet~e well suited to our purpose, and again we lost a whole day in repairing this unfortunate breakage. In the en~ nino· Brown went out to hunt, and soon returned, "'aying that he had killed two black tailed deer. As he was unable to bring them to camp, he had thrown his coat over them to keep away the wolves until he could get mules and bring them in. . As I had had no exercise during the day, I startecl back w1lh Brown ia order to get the deer. The country over which we passed was intersected by deep ravines, and some of the hill sides were so steep that it was with great difficulty we forced our mules to proceed. At length we reacherl the deer, and founcl them untouched by the wolves. Having packed them upon our mules, we returned to camp. . ,. These deP.r were of the species called " cervus macrohs. · Brown said that he bad seen several mountain sheep during the day, but they were so wild that he could not approach them. They are tlte "eapra montana" of Harlen. 1 have founcl them 35 far south as Valverde, in New Mexico. . On the 13th of January we again resumed our march, fee!mg :rpuch refreshecl by a clay of rest. We had several difficult crosswgs to make and steep hills to climb, but my men did their duty bravely. As the sun shone forth with considerable warmth the snow com· ~enced to thaw, and the road became slippery and muddy. Three ti~nes we were forced to travel in the bed ot' a stream for a long d~stance. We were obliged to cut up the ice with our axes ~or~ distance of fifty or sixty yards and then to clear out the P1ece which choked up the stream, b~fore the mules could be forced to P:~ceed .. At length some of my men rushed into the wa!er, no~ V.:Ithstand~ng the season, and catching the mules by then head., 107 [ 23 '] h freed them to keep in the middle of the stream, and effect-t ely] poreventccl them, notwithstanoing their frequent attempts, from ua y . h . d leaping up the banks on e1t er s1 e. . . . . We now reached one of the steepest acc1Ivltles we had se~n 1n the whole journey. We took all the mules, a~d as many of the 1arty' as coulJ find room a~ the wheels, 8nd earned our wagon~ up ~neat a time. It was pa1nful .to see the poor bea~ts s?. ternbly beaten and shocking to hear the blasphemous oaths wntch were uttered· but all :;;eemed to forget themselves in the excitement of the mo~ent, while th ey strained eYery nerve, and while the woods resounded with whooping and yelling·. When we reached the top of the hill, the old pine trees. of the mountain RiClcs ~book with deafening shouts and cheerin~. To look at this hill, it wo·uld seem impossible for loaded wngons to achieve the ;:~scent. l~efore we hacl procef'ded fa·, we found seve ral brol~ n wagons; the tongue of one of th em was of hickory; this we took, as we wanted helves for our axes, and pickets for our mules. We made an early camp near a grove of c1ead cotton w~:JOd trees, and close by the road side; we built large fires, and every on e had his roasting- stick loaded with venison, which was soon spnttering before the flames. Although we were many hou rs on the road, yet our day's march clid not exceed eicrht miles. . b _Januar~ 14.-Not long after leaving camp we reacllcd the last difficult hdl that we would have to encounter, for the r emai nder of the road from here to Bent's fort rises and falls in gent]<' slopes. ~s so~n as I h;:~rl seen the wagons safely ovfr this hill, I took L_a~ng With me and set off for some coal beds which I hatl formerly V1s1ted on my way to Santa Fe, when I had not been able to find any traces of ferns; but as Lainrr had once worked in a coal mine and seemed to be positive thatbhe could find me imprrssions sucl~ as hi! .had seen in the carboniferous formations of Mi:.sou ri, I set · out WJth renewerll1 op s: but after a long search he was obliged to confess that there' 1 ~' no1 e. We however obtained seYeral sneci-mens of tl · . '1 · · t • t Ie lo:-;s1 t.1\ es of dicotyledonous plants. Th c>se were of thw o sorts: one a lo ·•c-·eo]·i l t e ] e.· f' , resern bl 1' nrr t b at o f the wi· llow· et otfhe 1 r a large cordate leaf, like that otthe catalpa and hoth fsor 8 0 . eaves are distinctly mark ed with branchinrr ve'ins TL1J-"' orma t1 on t c1 h b - - · ' "' mY hu nterse. x en s t ron gh out the Raton, accorJinr..r.., to the Hport of weiihe splelciml ens of roal and of fossils which I procured here as as a tle CTeo l o . . 1 I . ] . l . ' . (lurine- the ' {' . . gtca anc mJne ra ogica specimens collected Profe~sor B~~fe onu.ton, haYe .been submitted to the inspc tion of amine them .. y ot \Vc~ t Pomt, who has kindly consented to ex- Whi1e huntinrr f ·1 ] . '<llon ~,. the bl ff· b I o"Sl s, argc flo.cks of stell<n Jays r(lme flyino-thpy'are lii u '. tb1ey ":'ere chattenng noisily, and in this re pect \'V {£' OLII lue py. e soon overto k tl. the.'' Rio de los; . 1e ,~v~gons, .and about 1 o'c.lock we reached tram of wagons nJmns, or Purgatory. Her<> we found a large had taken thei .'',~no saw some of the te.amsters who said that they r \\ mter quarters here, and that they should wait until |
