below Padilla, between Isoletta and Piralta.

.,sand, and the country is perfectly barren.-—-—

774

tute of vegetation. The hills bear a stunted
growth of pinon and red cedar; elevation,
6,670.—-p. 24. A

“ Aug. 13. (Encampment at the Canon).
Grass was miserable, and the camp ground
inundated by the shower to-day-— which
is quit_e a rarity. Elevation, (3,395:-‘p. 

“Aug. 16. Passed another Cation. The
road passed over to-day was good, but the
face of the country exceedingly rugged, bro-
ken, and covered with pinch and cedar. To
the left one or two miles distant, towers a
wall nearly perpendicular, 2000 feet high,
apparently level on the top, and showing as
Iiear as 1 could judge from the road, an im-
mense stratum of red sand stone.———p. 29.

“Aug. 18. Four or five miles from the
old Pic-as, the road leads into a Canon, with
hills on each side from .1000 to ‘.3000 feet

above the road, in all cases within cannon
shot, and many within the point blank mus-
ket shot.———p. 31. '

“ The geological formation much the same
as before described, until you begin to de-
scend towards the Del Norte, where granitic
rocks and sand are seen in great abundance
as far as Santa Fe. Cedar pinch, and a
large growth of long leafed pine are densely
crowded wherever the rock offered a crevice,
-—until within  or 8 miles ofthe town.

“(Santa Fe).-——On leaving the narrow
valley of the Santa Fe, which rises from

1000 feet to a mile or two in width, the
country presents nothing but ‘barren hills, ut-
rterly incapable, both from soil and climate,
of producing anything useful. The valley
is entirely cultivated by irrigation, and is
now covered with corn. Five miles below
the town, the stream disappears in granitic
sands.——p. 34.

“ Sept. 2. We descended the valley of
the Santa Fe river nearly west for 5 miles,
when we left the river and struck across a
dry arid plain, intersected by dry beds of
streams. Twenty-three miles brought us to
the G-alisteo_ Creek, which at that time was
barely running. From this place to its
mouth there is scarcely the sign of vegetation.
At the dry mouth of the Calisteo and directly
on the Del Norte, is the town of Santo Do-
mingo.——-p. 36,

“The valley of the Del Norte is here quit
narrow and the soil sandy.~—p. 38. a

“Sept. 3. Between San Filippe and the
Angosturas, six miles below, the valley of
the river is very narrow, afibrding no inter-
val for agriculture. On the west side, the
banks are steep walls, crowned by __seams of
basalt,’forming the table land. The east is
composed of rolling sand hills, rising gradu-
ally to the base of the mountains, and co vered
with large round pebbles. Elevation, 5000
ieet.——p. 39. ’

“Sept. 4. Below the Angosturas the val-
jley of the river opens into a plain varying
from 2 to 6 miles wide ; soil sandy and cul-
tivated by irrigation.——p. 40.

“Sept. 6. The valley suddenly contracts

On the east side of the river there is deep

p.41.

“Sept. 7. About 11 o’clock the whole
character of the night was changed byan
east wind that came rustling down fromithe
mountains,driving the sand before it. Near-
ly the whole of the distance travelled in the
last three days has been over drifting sand,
with only occasional patches of firm soil.

“Sept. 30. VVe dec-amped a little more
than half way between Albuquerque and
Pardillus on a sandy plain, destitute of wood
and with little grass.——p. 46.

a“ Sept. 30. Feeling no desire to go over
the same ground twice, I struck off on the
table lands to the west, and found these
a succession of rolling sand hills.———p. 47.

“Oct. 4 The wagons mounted the sand
hills with great difficulty. The river im-
pingnes so close on the bills as to make it ne-
cessary, on the western side, to mount the
table land.
base ofthe mountains, are of the same char-
acter as heretofore mentioned, of rolling sand

hills.——p. 49.
“ Oct. 5. Camp near Secora——leave the
river and strike for the Gila. We accord-

ingly moved only 6 miles to-day, and en-
camped a little north of Secora, preparatory
to taking the hills to-morrow. The prospect
is forbidding; from Sierra Lescadron, oppo-
site the amphitheatre, as far south as the eye
can reach on the western side of the river, is
a chain of precipitous basaltic mountains,
traversed by dykes of trap , through these we
are to pass.——p. 51.

These plains, reaching to the 1

AMERICAN RAILROAD JOURNAL.

work. Expecting nothing better ahead, it
was determined to leave the wagons and
send back for pack saddles.

“ For the last night or two, it has been
unusually cold, the thermometer ranging
from 25 to 32°; but during the day it
mounts up to 75 and 80, Lat. 33, 20 20,-
p. 55. , ‘

“Oct. 15. After travelling 3 miles and a
half, we turned from the Del Norte and took
final leave of it——altitude 4,810 feet. Capt.
Cook left this route and went further south
as far as lat. 3150 then northwest.

“ Oct. 16. We commanded the approach
to the Membres mountains, over a beautiful
rolling country. The soil in the valley, and
to the hill tops, of the best quality———n0thing
but rain is required to make this part of the

country inhabitable. (Cacti prevailed).——-
13.57. _
“Oct. 18. Succession ofhills and vallies,

covered with cedar live oak, and some long
leaf pines. Elevation, 6,167.-——p. 58.

‘~ Oct. 19. The country passed overin the
first part of the day was beautiful in the ex-
treme. A succession of high rolling hills,
with mountains in the distance. The soil
rich and wavering with grams. The latter
part was more barren, and covered with arte-
misias.—-p. 59.

“VVe wended our way through the nar-
row valley of Night creek. On each side
were huge stone buttes, shooting up into the
skies. At one place we were compelled to
mount one of these spars almost perpendicu-

“ Oct. 6. Determined not to leave the
river.———p. 

“Oct. 8. The valley of the Del Norte,

as we advance, loses what little capacity for
agriculture it possessed. The river corn-
rnences to gather its feeble force into the
smallest compass to work its way around the
western base of Fra Cristobal mountain.—
The Chihuahua road runs on the eastern
side, and that part of it is the dreaded “jor
nada” of the traders, when they must go
most seasons of the year 90 miles without
water. Our road over hill and dale led us
through a great variety of vegetation, all to-
tally different from that ofthe United States.
To-days observations of the plants maybe
taken as a fair specimen of the southern part
of New Mexico‘. First, there were cacti in
endless variety, and of gigantic size ; our new
and disagreeable friend, Carrea Mexicana,
Fremontia, &c.
i The table lands, reaching to the base of
the mountains to the west, are of sand and
large round pebbles, terminating in steep
bills from a quarter to a halfa mile from the
river, capped with seams of basalt.———-p. 54.

“Oct. 9. The country becomes broken,
and the valley narrows into a cannon which
sweeps at the base of Fra Cristobal moun-
tain, making it necessary to rise to the table
land on the west side, which we found tra-
versed by deep arroyas, crowned on their
summits by basalt.-——p. 54.

“The road was unbroken, obstructed by
bushes, and so badgthat the wagons made
only 11-; miles, and the teams came into
camp blown and staggering, after their day’s

larly. This gave us an opportunity of see-
ing what a mule could do.——p. 61.

“Oct. 21. After going a few miles, cross-
ing and recrossing the river a dozen times, it
was necessary to leave its bed and avoid a
canon. This led us over a very broken
country, traversed by hugh dykes of trap and
walls of basalt. ’

“ The earth in the river bed, where it was
not paved with fragments of rocks, was loose
resembling volcanic dust, making it unsafe
to ride out of the beaten track. A mule
would sometimes sink to his knee. This
was a hard dry day on the animals, the
steep ascents and desccnts shifting the packs,
and cuttingthern dreadfully. The howitzers
did not reach the camp.-—p. 62.

“ Oct. 23. Last nightthe heavens became
overcast, the air damp, and we expected for
the first time since leaving Santa Fe (0. month
tomorrow) to have a sprinkle of rain ; but
at 9 this morning the clouds had all cleared
away.

“ The changes of the temperature are very
great,owing to the distance from the influ-
ence of large masses of water, and if they are
accompanied with corresponding changes in
humidity, they would be insupportable.——
Last night we went to bed with the ther-
mometer at 70° and awakened in the morn-

ing shivering, the thermometer marking
25°.

“The table land, 150 feet above the river,
was covered so thick with large paving peb-
bles, as to make it diflicult to get a smooth
place to lie upon. The growth of to-day

and yesterday, on the hills and in the valley