* 
[26] 72 
ever. seen it in Indians. ‘The dead me 588 were lying there all oe 
Americans nor Mexicans seemed to care ut them, and thei 
‘was no doubt left to the wolves. I rt, thereto, no eae 3 
Sekine « nother curiosity along for scientific purposes— t, the skull 
of the tolicine man, which I have, since. my return, tnecsniiase, that dis- 
The mabe is distinguished for its ingenious water- orice: It consists fof a 
deep and very —— s well, from which the water is drawn by mule 
power in the following way. ‘Over a large wheel in the upper part of the 
well a strong and ‘bread band of leather is stretched, moving around with 
the wheel; to the band, in regular distances, many buckets of leather are 
attached, which, by the equal circular motion of the wheel and the band, 
are descending on one side to the well, and fill themselves with water, 
while they are drawn up on the other side, and, emptying their water into a 
basin, return again to the well. To receive the drawn water, two large 
basins of stone, about 40 feet wide and 100 feet long, have been made, 
and on the outside of the basins runs a long line of troughs, all of stone, 
for the watering of the animals. Part of our vanguard have been ordered 
ahead this morning to see the basins filled; and when the regiment arrived; 
ail our animals were watered in less than an hour. The same Indians 
which our men fought here, the Lipans, used to frequent this well very 
freely, and carried their impudence even so far that they notified the Mex- 
icans at what time they wanted to have the basins full, and the Mexicans 
cid: not dare to disobey. Although the idea of this waterwheel is by no 
means a new one, it is certainly very simply and well executed, and the 
more gratifying to the traveller, as this is the only watering place between 
pa Ju ae tras, a distance of oon 50 miles. On the threatened in- 
army to 6 expose them to starvation for want of water. This would sata 
have proved a most wanton destruction, as the Mexicans must have found 
out by this time that a Jornada of 50 miles is not capable of stopping an 
an army. 
May 14.—We left this morning for Parras, in the State of Coahuila. 
On most maps the Laguna de Parras is laid down as the western bound 
between Durango and Coahuila; some Mexicans told me thatin the Bolson 
de pecan the Rio Nasas is considered as the boundary line. Our road 
anear mountain chain to the right, and was mostly as- 
nanan In the latter part of our march we saw from a hill Parras, at the 
phar ieng same chain, which makes — a bend —— southeast. The 
4 
