92 FROM MOUTH OP DEVIl'S RIVER TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 



stepping out of my Hankets^ found myself knee-deep in water, which was rapidly rising. 

 My first impulse was to seize the chronometer and note-books of the survey, and make for the 

 small eminence upon which the observatory was placed. Only^two persons were near enough 

 to assist me, Mr. Gardner and my cock, and neither of them could swim. As we advanced, 

 the water came up to the chin, and the. soft ground under foot gave way. It was with the 

 greatest difficulty we reached the hill with our precious load. The night was inky dark, but 

 I caused fires to be built, when all hands immediately went to work, and by the time day broke 

 we had secured nearly everything of value. The only public property lost was some belonging 

 to the escort^ composed of raw recruits, many of whom could not speak a word of English, and 

 who, in the absence of their commanding officer, took to the hills, and could not be brought 

 down till day-light. A tremendous rain on the adjacent mountain had fallen during the early 

 part of the night, and the accumulated waters finding insufiicient drainage, made for them- 

 selves a new channel, which unfortunately passed through our camp. 



Throughout that whole region traces of the same kind of deluges can be found, where for 

 months and yeafs naf a particle of running water is ever seen. These traces receive the name 

 of arroyos, and I think may be taken generally as evidences of a country subject to long 

 droughts, only interrupted at long intervals by heavy falls of rain. 



On a more recent visit to El Paso, in the summer of 1855, the rains were very frequent and 

 heavy. On one occasion several adobe houses were washed down, and, with few exceptions, 

 every house in the place was damaged and rendered leaky. This town, although built in the 

 sixteenth century, and possessing a very considerable trade, does not contain a single stone, 

 brick, or wooden building. The houses, of one story, are biiilt of adobe, (mud and straw,) and 

 the tops covered with tile, grass, or mud, supported by undressed cottonwood logs. They 

 resemble very much the ruins of the houses described in the oases of Syria, and particularly in 

 the dimensions of the rooms, which are accommodated to the rude carpentry ^of semi-civilized 

 nations. However long a room may be, it is never more than twenty or thirty feet wide, the 

 il?an of a stick of timber, without the aid of king-posts. 



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