THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 299 



descended toward the plain as a coast towards the ocean — the valleys 

 and precipices reposed in cold blue shadows, chilly enough to make the 

 beholder shudder in looking upon them. 



Just before arriving at the loot of these mountains, we found a pond 

 of water four hundred yards to the right of the road. Our guide 

 informed us that in the dr}^ season no water can be obtained at this 

 place. 



There are here two passes through the mountains; the one on the 

 left hand going eastward, leading through a difficult caTion;, is practi- 

 cable only as a bridle path ; the one oh; the right hand affords every 

 natural facility for making a most excellent road for wagons. 



These passes are known, in the language of the countr}', as Los 

 Puertos de Aho. The summit of the right hand pass is nineteen miles 

 and sixty-three yards from Casa Colorada, and hes east 20° south from 

 that town. The road for this whole distance is by far the finest we had 

 seen in New Mexico, and is not surpassed, in any point of excellence, 

 by the celebrated shell road at New Orleans. 



The first outcropping of stone which we observed as we approached 

 the mountains was of quartz, trap, and greenstone. These are sur- 

 mounted b}'^ numerous strata of fossiliferous limestone, of good quality. 

 These strata in some places are hundreds of feet in thickness. This 

 latter formation prevails exclusively at the summit of the pass. 



There is no timber of any kind to be met with until you come near 

 the top of the mountains ; the growth then is entirely of dwarfish piiion 

 and stunted cedar. 



We encountered snow half way up the pass. The scene presented 

 by the column winding its circuitous route to the summit, with parts of 

 it lost to view behind some jutting crag, or just emerging into sight 

 from some deep gorge — the foreground filled with the dragoons moving 

 upon different turns of the road, the sun glancing brightly on their ap- 

 pointments — the towering snow-clad peaks on either hand — the back 

 ground the valley of the Rio Grande, with the distant mountains in the 

 northwest marking with a serrated line the far off horizon — was a pic- 

 ture whose beauty w"ill not easily be Ibi gotten. 



The general direction of the chain of mountains stretching north- 

 ward of the pass toward Sandia Peak is north 10° west. The first 

 elevated peaks southward of Sandia are called La Tetilla; the next La 

 Sierra de la, Manzana; then come Los Puertos de Abo; and then the high 

 range still further south which is known as La Sierra del Palo Duro. 



From the summit of the pass for the first two or three miles the road 

 is very circuitous. It then has an easy gradual descent for about three 

 miles further, when you come to a deep cailon which lies entirely to 

 the left, but in sight of the road, and at a distance from it of six or 

 eight hundred yards. There, in the cafion, good sweet water is always 

 found. This place is called Agica de Juan Lvjan. Near this, but a 

 few hundred yards further east, we passed a large spring of salt water. 

 It is known by the Mexicans who travel the road as La Saluda. Pass- 

 ing this, we next encountered, for some three or four miles, 7ncsas of 

 dark chocolate-colored sandstone, through which w^ wound our way to 

 a point where the roads forked. We took that which leads to the left 

 hand. In less than half a mile, our road lying up the dry bed of a wet- 



