Through Arizona to San Diego 153' 



surround camps in less time than it takes to remove 

 the provisions and other property, and I was told 

 by some of the parties we met near the Gila, that 

 on the El Paso route a party of General Worth's 

 train lost their baggage by just such floods as we 

 have to look out for. 



Leaving this water-hole Boggs and myself 

 walked to the peaks of one of the conical moun- 

 tains of iron-stone, which here surround the plains ; 

 it was bluish-black with heavy dashes of purple 

 intermingled for yards at a time, and looked like 

 huge masses of earth that had been frozen, and 

 were just in the crumbling state which precedes 

 thawing. The view from the top was very grand, 

 but all the scenes we had as we ascended from the 

 plain gave pleasure. At first the broad prairie 

 stretched west as far as the line of horizon; a few 

 feet higher on the mountain enabled us to see the 

 conical heads of others, and as we went higher and 

 higher, we saw hill after hill, and mountain capped 

 mountain, and the straight line which formed our 

 horizon at first was lost in the irregular one of 

 peaks of the wildest character and desolation. As 

 we looked north round the entire country to north 

 again, our eyes surveyed miles of apparently waste 

 barren country, without wood, water or animated 

 nature; one vulture alone sailed magnificently 

 round us, surveying us from a closer circle at every 

 whirl he made, his wings rustling as they glided 



