im 



ITS NAMES AND CHARACTER. 141 



most everj-where fordable during most of the 

 year, being seldom over knee-deep, except at 

 the time of freshets. Its banks are generally- 

 very low, often less than ten feet above low- 

 water mark ; and yet, owing to the dispropor- 

 tioned width of the channel (which is gene- 

 rally three or four hundred yards), it is not 

 subject to inundations. Its only 

 nses are those of the annual freshets, occasion- 

 ed by the melting of the snow in the moun- 

 tains. 



This river is only known to the inhabitants 

 of Northern Mexico as Rio del Norte, or North 

 nver, because it descends from that direction ; 

 yet m its passage southward, it is in some 

 places called Hio Grande, on account of its 

 extent ; but the name of Bio Bravo (Bold or 

 Ivapid river), so often given to it on maps, 

 IS seldom if ever heard among the people. 

 1 hough its enthe length, following its me- 

 anders from its source in the Rocky Moun- 

 lauis to the Gulf of Mexico, must be con.^id- 

 crably over two thousand miles, it is hardly 

 nangable to the extent of two hundred miles 

 above its mouth. 



The head branch of Pecos, as well as the 

 creeks of Santa Fe and Tezuque, are said to 

 be fed from a Httle lake which is located on 

 "le summit of a mountain about ten miles 

 east of Santa Fe. Manifold and marvellous 

 ^e the stories related of this lake and its won- 

 derful localities, w hich although believed to be 

 at least greatly exaggerated, would no doubt 

 induce numbers of travellers to "visit this 



