6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



" Desirous to render the occupation of New Mexico by the United 

 States troops subservient to the advancement of science, and to make 

 known the vegetation of a region which had scarcely been visited by a 

 naturalist, Dr. Engelmann and myself, with the cooperation of one or 

 two friends who patronized the enterprise, induced Mr. Fendler to un- 

 dertake a botanical exploration of tlie country around Santa Fe. In 

 execution of this plan, Mr. Fendler left Fort Leavenworth, on the Mis- 

 souri, on the 10th of August, 1846, with a military train, he having 

 been allowed by the Secretary of War a free transportation for him- 

 self, his luggage, and collections. 



" Mr. Fendler travelled the well-beaten track of the Santa Fe trad- 

 ers to the Arkansas, and then followed that river up to Bent's Fort, 

 which he reached on the 5th of September. On the 25th of Septem- ■ 

 her the Arkansas was crossed, four miles above Bent's Fort, and the 

 westerly course was now changed to a southwestern direction, through 

 an arid and very barren region, where the shrubby Alriplex was the 

 most characteristic plant, and furnished almost the only fuel to be ob- 

 tained. Thus far the country was a comparatively level, or rather 

 rolling, prairie, rising gradually from one thousand to more than four 

 thousand feet above the sea. But on Sept. 27th, the base of the moun- 

 tain chain was reached, which is an outlier of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and attains in the Raton Mountains the elevation of eight thousand feet. 

 West of these, in dim distance, the still higher Spanish Peaks appear, 

 which have only been visited, very cursorily, by the naturalists of Ma- 

 jor Long's expedition in 1820. Scattered Pine-trees are here seen for 

 the first time on the Rio de los Animos (or Purgatory River of the 

 Anglo-Americans), which issues from the Raton Mountains. The par- 

 ty several times crossed large perfectly level tracts, which at this sea- 

 son, at least, showed not a sign of vegetation ; in other localities of the 

 same description, nothing but a decumbent species of Opuntia was ob- 

 served. The sides of the Raton Mountains were studded with the tall 

 Pinus hrachyptera, Engelm., and the elegant Pinus concolor. De- 

 scending the mountains, the road led along their southeastern base, 

 across the head-waters of the Canadian. 



" On the 11th of October, Mr. Fendler obtained the first view of the 

 valley of Santa F6, and was disagreeably surprised by the apparent 

 sterility of the region where his researches were to commence in the 

 following season. The mountains rise probably to near nine thousand 

 feet above the sea-level, two thousand feet above the town, but do not 



