80 A DELIGHTFUL BATH. 
red in the streams that fed Lake Patos, and 
caused it to overflow its banks, which ac- 
counted for this unwelcome visitation. We 
had to flounder through the mud and water 
for several hours, before we succeeded in get- 
ting across. 
The following day we reached the acequia 
below Carrizal, a sovall village with only three 
or four hundred inhabitants, but somewhat 
remarkable as being the site of a presidio (fort), 
at which is stationed a company of troops to 
protect the country against the ravages of the 
Apaches, who, notwithstanding, continue to 
lay waste the ranchos in the vicinity, and to de- 
predate at will within the very sight of the fort. 
About twelve miles south of Carrizal there 
is one of the most charming warm springs 
called Ojo Caliente, where we arrived the next 
day. It forms a basin some thirty feet long 
by about half that width, and just deep and 
warm enough for a most delightful bath at all 
seasons of the year. Were this spring (whose 
outlet forms a bold little rivulet) anywhere 
within the United States, it would doubtless 
soon be converted into a place of fashionable 
resort. There appears to be a somewhat cu- 
rious phenomenon connected with this spring. 
It proceeds, no doubt, from the little river of 
Carmen which passes within half a mile, and 
finally discharges itself into the small lake 
of Patos before mentioned. All the water of 
this stream disappears in the sand seve 
miles above the spring; and what peace | it 
traverses in its subterranean passage to impar 
