158 Audubon's Western Journal 



October 1st. The first rise as we enter the desert 

 gives the view of the plain for a great distance, 

 and it seems one vast waste of twenty by a hundred 

 miles. 



The road is continuous clay and sand, so impreg- 

 nated with salt and other mineral matter deleterious 

 to vegetation, that sun flowers and salt grass, and 

 the accursed emblem of barrenness and sterility 

 "Larrea Mexicana," [Creosote plant] according 

 to Dr. Trask, are all that are seen in the way of 

 herbage. In places the sunflowers are marvel- 

 ously luxuriant, and cover miles of the country, 

 and are from five to seven feet high, the road cut 

 through them being the only gap in their almost 

 solid ranks. 



The dust in this road is over the shoe tops, and 

 rises in clouds, filling eyes and almost choking us 

 as we trudge along, sore and jaded — men, horses, 

 mules, cattle. We stop at night, after eight hours' 

 travel, having made only fifteen or twenty miles; 

 often without food except by chance, for our ani- 

 mals. Grass is only found in the good bends of the 

 river, which we may strike, or may not. 



October jd. Left at eight in the morning, and 

 rode fifteen miles, where we found water in some 

 holes; we had noticed a very heavy rain yesterday 

 in this direction, which had probably filled them. 

 We rode on until night, when we camped until one 

 in the morning, when, by the light of a full moon 



