lio 



out by miners, f or th.ere is a large copper deposit near th.e tum of the great 

 barranca, in a most inaccessible position. Tbe valley extends a hundred 

 miles above the town, and contains someold, rich, sil ver mines. Wenow 

 proceed to Cerrocahui a small place on the températe mesa, surrounded 

 by arable land; here is an adobe churck built in 1700. There are cbarming 

 spots on tbe mesa, well wooded and level, with olear streams whicb, end 

 in a sheer descent of many tbousand f eet; f rom one, there is a view bver 

 the immense crags of the Ai-royo Hondo. They are kept green by a slight 

 deposition of mist or fine rain, in ascending cui'rents of air, f orced up the 

 cliffs by wind; a short distance from the edge, such moisture is absent. 



The track passes Tecumichic (elevation 5950 feet) and Sinagita, and 

 emerges on the edge of the mesa at El Ojito (the little eye), whence one 

 can see severa! thousand square miles of country, including points sixty 

 miles distant. On the east, is the Cerro del Pilar, a series of singular f orms 

 of eroded trachy te, and the oíd lake basin of Tubares; to the south, are 

 the volcanoes of Eealito, Cobre, and Pinitos; and west, are long tongues 

 of tableland divided by precipitous valleys. Such a view must be uncom- 

 mon in any country. From this point the track descends rapidly to the hot 

 springs of Huachara situated among a number of small hills with streams 

 winding among them; the remarkable similarity and strange f orm of the- 

 se hills can hardly be due to ordinary erosión; they are composed of loóse 

 stones, gravel, and sand of a reddish colour, and the entire hollow is filled 

 with them. The track passes o ver Sausillo, and from El Sillón beyond it, 

 a new view is obtained of innumerable small hills and mountains; it soon 

 passes the boundary between the oíd trachyte and the recent volcanic área, 

 and reaches La Junta by Tacopaco, a village in a valley containing many 

 palm-trees called tacos. 



Descending the main river to Agua Caliente de Baca the bed is f ound 

 to be of syenite; it finally emerges into the low country through the Ca- 

 jón de Haites, between the Cerro de Santiago and the. Cerro de Chucha- 

 ca. Belowthis, the country is generally syenite, but part of it is covered 

 by a lava sheet 20 feet thick, which filled an oíd bed of the river, moul- 

 ding itself to the waterworn roeks, sealing up beds of gravel, and sometí- 

 mes rising into bubbles over pools; the river subsequently cut through 

 the layer and 50 feet of syenite, leaving the junction exposed on a cliff. 

 As auriferous veins are abundant in these gravéis; a surmise which was 

 verified by washing a handf ul of gravel. The top of the lava bears a plan- 

 tation of large cultivated ages for making the spirit called mezcal: they 

 grow luxuriantly on the descomposing rock. The lava extends to Agua Ca- 

 liente, where there are springs at a tempero ture of 120° F., containing sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen and carbonates; in the hot water the stones are coated 



