Hunting in Many Lands 



and kept faithful guard until 5, when we began 

 our day with a water-bucket frozen solid. 



All our property remained safe, and a dis- 

 tant fire twinkling in the brush showed that 

 our neighbors were still there. After break- 

 fast Oscar again sought the hostile camp, and 

 finally found a scared and innocent French- 

 man, who cried out, on recognizing his visitor: 



"Holy Mary! I took you for American 

 robbers from the line, and I have lain awake 

 all night, watching my horses." 



From Agua Blanca we drove across the 

 Santa Catarina ranch, for the most part plain 

 and mesa, covered with greasewood and buck- 

 brush. This latter shrub looks much like sage, 

 except that its leaves are of a yellow-green 

 instead of a blue-green. It is said to furnish 

 the chief nutrition for stock on several great 

 ranches. Certainly there was no visible grass, 

 but buckbrush can hardly be fattening. To- 

 ward night, we crossed the pass into the Trini- 

 dad Valley and drove down a grade not steep 

 only, but sidelong, where the wagons both 

 went tobogganing down and slid rapidly to- 

 ward the gulch. The mules held well, how- 

 ever, and before dark we were camped near 

 the hot spring at the house of Alvarez. 



64 



