A LILLIPUTIAN FOREST. 31 
fixed stars. At Gypsum creek our latitude 
was 36° 10’—being the utmost northing we 
had made. As we were now about thi 
miles north of the parallel of Santa Fé, we 
had to steer, henceforth, a few degrees south 
of — in order to bring up on our direct 
cours 
The following night we encamped in a re- 
gion covered with sandy hillocks, where there 
was not a drop of water to be found: in fact, 
an immense sand-plain was now opening 
before us, somewhat variegated in appear- 
ance, being entirely barren of vegetation in 
some places, while others were completely 
covered with an extraordinarily diminutive e 
growth which has been called shin-oak, and 
a curious plum-bush of equally dwarfish sta- 
ture. These singular-looking plants (undis- 
tinguishable at a distance from.the grass of 
the prairies) were heavily laden with acorns 
and plums, which, when ripe, are of consi- 
derable size, although the trunks of either 
were seldom thicker than oat-straws, and fre- 
quently not a foot high. We also met with 
eens in many other places on the Prai- 
Stil the most indispensable requisite, wa- 
ter, was nowhere to be found, and symptoms 
of alarm were beginning to spread far and 
wide among us. When we had last seen the 
Canadian and the North Fork, they appeared 
to separate in their course almost at right 
angles, therefore it was impossible to tell at 
what distance we were Shoint-et either. At last 
