142 Audubon's Western Journal 



stream we are now fording, brought to my mind 

 many an evening return home. 



Two or three miles of this travelling brought me 

 to the first sandy tableland, and the dull monotony 

 of a road shut in by chaparral continued until I 

 came to the camp, low-spirited and tired, and 

 longing for the end of this toilsome journey; per- 

 haps the fact that Osgood, Plumb and Brown hav- 

 ing left us at Ures to go by way of Mazatlan with 

 another company, may have had more to do with 

 my depression than other circumstances. 



Here, in the heart of the Indian country, with 

 the watchword "Apache," in the mouth of every 

 Mexican, and our guard rigid, we are toiling on 

 through an interesting country. The large cactus, 

 given by Fremont or Abert,^ we met here in great 

 luxuriance, having a centre of pulpy pith sur- 

 rounded by a number of long hearts, one for each 

 ridge of the meat, or pulp, of the plant. If I 

 only had time, how I should enjoy making draw- 

 ings of all this, but I cannot. 



^ Many scientific reports appeared in the public documents 

 of this period. Fremont's "Report of an Expedition to Oregon 

 and California" was printed both in Senate and House documents 

 and in a separate edition in 1845. ^^^ Senate documents of 

 the ist session of the 30th Congress, printed in 1848, contain 

 Emory's "Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth to San 

 Diego," Abert's "Examination of New Mexico," Wislizenus's 

 "Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico," and Fremont's 

 "Geographical Memoir upon Upper California." Audubon 

 probably had in mind the cylindrical cactus figured by Abert. 



