25 [ 26] 
ee for whitewashing, and the crystalline or selenite instead of window 
gla Abeut fou ep = travelling (probably 100 miles) south-southeast 2s 
Slats Fe, on the ‘hi igh table-lax id between the Rio del Norte and Pecose 
are some extensive salt lakes, or ‘‘ salinas,’’ from which all the salt (ms. 
riate of soda) used in New Mexico is procured. large caravans go theof 
every year from Santa Fe in the dry season, and. return with as much is 
they car transport. They exchange, generally, one bushel of salt for orl- 
of Indian corn, or sell it for one and even two dollars a bus 
Not far from these salinas the ruins of an old city are found, of the fab-- 
ulous ‘la Gran Quivira.”’ The common report in relation to this place 
is, that a very large and wealthy city was once here situated, with very 
rich pics the produce of which was once or twice a year se sent to Spain. 
At one season, when they were making extraordinary preparations for 
pany 2 g the precious metals, the Indians attacked them; wherenp 
“he, 
D 
the weipers buried their treasures, worth 50 millions, and- left the city to- | 
lled 
to many spacious pits, sateagre to be pis mines. It was no don bta 
Spanish mining town, and it is not unlikely that it was destroyed in vi 
in the general, successful insurrection of the Indians in New xico 
against the Spaniards. Dr. Samuel G. Morton, ina late pamphists “sug 
gests the probability that it was originally an old ee n city, m 
the Spaniards, as ip several other instances, had intruded prec 
and subsequently nhandlonet it. Further te it is to be hoped, 
will clear up this poin 
ne climate of “i Mexico is of course very different in the higher, 
mountainous parts, from the lower valley of the Rio del Norte; but 
generally taken, it is temperate, constant, and he althy. ‘The summer 
heat in the valley of the river will sometimes rise to nearly 100° Fah- 
renheit, but the nights are always cool and pleasant. The winters 
are much longer and more severe than in Chihuahua, the higher moun- 
tains are always epkared with snow, and ice and snow are common 
in Santa Fe; but the Rio del Norte is never frozen with ice thick 
enough to adinit the passage of horses and carriages, a8 was formerly be- 
Jieved. 'The.s sky is generally clear, and the atmosphere dry. Between 
July and October, rains fall; but the rainy seasons ici age not so constant 
and regular as in the southern States. Disease seems to be very little 
known, except some inflammations and typhoidal iden in the winter 
season ; 
‘The history of New Mexico lies very much in ‘the dark. The Span- 
iards, it seems, received the first information about it in 1581 from a party . 
of adventurers uuder Captain Francisco de sone + ponies who, upon 
finding the aboriginal inhabitants and the mineral wealth of the country to 
~ be similar to those of Mexico, called it New Mexico “ 1594, the sie 
