SANTA FE. 143 



to be seen ; and not a breath of air was stir- 

 ring. It was indeed a solitude to be felt A 

 mile beyond the grove brought us near the 

 lake. On this last level, we unexpectedly 

 met with occasional snow-banks, some of 

 them still two or three feet deep. Being late, 

 we sought out a suitable encampment, and 

 fixed upon a little marshy prairie, east of the 

 lake. The night was frosty and cold, and ice 

 was frozen nearly an inch thick. Next morn- 

 ing we proceeded to the lake ; when, lo — ^in- 

 stead of beholding a beautiful sheet of water, 

 we found an ugly little pond, with an area of 

 two or three acres — ^frozen over, and one side 

 covered with snow several feet deep. Thus 

 all our hope of trout and monsters were at an 

 end ; and the tracks of a large bear in the 

 snow, were all the Carrie we saw during the 



trip." *' 



Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is the 

 only town of any importance in the pro\ince. 

 We sometimes find it written Santa Fe de San 

 ■trancisco (Holy Faith of St Francis), the lat- 

 ter being the patron, or tutelar}^ saint Like 

 most of the towns in this section of country 

 It occupies the site of an ancient Pueblo or 

 •Jndian village, whose race has been extinct 

 lor a great many years. Its situation is twelve 

 or fifteen miles east of the Rio del Norte, at 

 the Western base of a snow-clad mountain, 

 upon a beautiful stream of small mill-power 

 size, wliich ripples down in icy cascades, and 

 joins the river some twenty miles to the south- 

 westward. The population of the city itself 



