REVIEWS THE GREAT DESERTS OP NORTH AMERICA. 65 



proved a mine of wealth for our adventurer; — who might aptly ex- 

 claim with the stay-at-home author of "The Task," 



" He travels, and expatiates ; as the bee, 

 And spreads the honey of his deep research 

 At his return, — a rich repast for me ; 

 He travels, and I too .'" 



In volume IL, an account of the "Indians of the Pueblos " occurs, vague 

 and uncircumstantial, as ever second-hand materials were ; and with 

 its more defined pictorial illustration to eke out the text. But here 

 again the so called " Pueblo Indian " proves to be a coarse caricature, 

 the reverse of plate IV , of the Washington War Reports of 1850, 

 representing in the original, — not a mere ordinary Indian, but 

 "Hos-ta, or the lightning, governor of the Pueblo of Jemez." On 

 the contrary the so called "Navajo Chief," of the Abbe, appears in 

 pi. LII. of the same War Report, merely as an illustration of Navajo 

 costume ; but to fit him for his sudden promotion, a dandified shield 

 with scalp-locks, borrowed from the fashions of the totally diverse 

 tribes of the north, is substituted for the plain oval shield of hide, as 

 originally drawn by R. H. Kern, the draughtsman of the Navajo 

 Expedition. Ridiculous as such incongruous additions appear to any 

 one familiar with the Indians of the north and of the south, they are 

 trifles compared with the olla podrida served up, at p. 207, of vol. I., 

 in the plate designated " Inscription Rock." This accompanies a 

 description of the El Moro Rock of the Sierra Madre, one of the most 

 extensive and curious groups of native and early European graven re- 

 cords hitherto discovered on the whole continent. Like most other de- 

 scriptions from his pen, the reader is left to guess as he best may, 

 whether the author pretends to have seen the objects he thus vaguely 

 describes : " Beyond the Agua Fria you descend the western slope of 

 the Sierra Madre, and reach a very open valley wherein may be seen 

 the Rock of Inscriptions called El Moro by the Mexicans ;" and so 

 the writer proceeds, — in a diluted version of Lieut. J. H. Simpson, 

 of U. S. Topographical Corps' narrative of his visit to the El Moro in 

 1849, — to tell, with all the indefiniteness of a borrowed report, what 

 you may, can, might, would, or could see, gentle reader, if you only 

 were there. But as to the accompanying illustration, be certain, if it 

 is ever your fortune to visit the Sierra Madre, you will search in 

 vain for its prototype •, though without travelling any such perilous 

 journey, you may discover its materials in the unmentioned volume of 

 Washington War Reports now referred to, from whence there can be 



