SIERRA VENTANA. 139 



zing : I immediately hid myself in the long grass, 

 and began to reconnoitre ; but as I could see no 

 signs of Indians, I proceeded cautiously on my sec- 

 ond ascent. It was late in the day, and this part 

 of the mountain, like the other, was steep and rug- 

 ged, I was on the top of the second peak by two 

 o'clock, but got there with extreme difficulty ; ev- 

 ery twenty yards I had the cramp in the upper part 

 of both tlughs, so that I was afraid I should not 

 have been able to have got down again. It was 

 also necessary to return by another road, as it was 

 out of the question to pass over the saddle-back. 

 I was therefore obliged to give up the two higher 

 peaks. Their altitude was but little greater, and 

 every purpose of geology had been answered, so 

 that the attempt was not worth the hazard of any 

 further exertion. I presume the cause of the cramp 

 was the gi'eat change in the kind of muscular ac- 

 tion, from that of hard riding to that of still harder 

 climbing. It is a lesson worth remembering, as in 

 some cases it might cause much difficulty. 



I have already said the mountain is composed of 

 white quartz rock, and with it a little glossy clay- 

 slate is associated. At the height of a few hun- 

 dred feet above the plain, patches of conglomerate 

 adhered in several places to the solid rock. They 

 resembled in hardness, and in the nature of the ce- 

 ment, the masses which may be seen daily forming 

 on some coasts. I do not doubt these pebbles were 

 in a similar manner aggregated, at a period when 

 the great calcareous formation was depositing be- 

 neath the suiTounding sea. We may believe that 

 the jagged and battered fonns of the hard quartz 

 yet show the effects of the waves of an open ocean. 



I was, on the whole, disappointed with this as-- 

 cent. Even the view was insignificant — a plain 

 like the sea, but without its beautiful colour and 



