Ex. Doc. No, 41. , 49 



The sand Lank^ at the foot of which Ave are encamped, is filled 

 with'serpentine, harder than that which is dug in such quantities 

 from lhe\ite of Fort Marcy, near Santa Fe, 



Now and then w^e came to spots from which the waters ^vere pre- 

 Tented from escaping by the sand, and had evaporated, leaving sa- 

 line incrustations; about these we found growing abundantly 



atriplex and salicornia. 



We found to-day lycium in great abundance, senecis longilobus, 

 martynia proboscidea, {cuckold'^s horns^) and a small shrub with 



flower like convolvulus. 



October 3. — The wagons from the rear not being up, we laid by 

 all day, in hourly expectation of their arrival and an order to march/ 

 An express from Colonel Price came up, informing us of his arrival 

 in Santa Fe. • , 



About 12 o'clock in the day, a Mexican came into camp, with his 

 horse foaming, to say that the Navaj^oes had made an attack on the 

 town of PuU-idera. One company of dragoons was immediately 

 despatched to the place, about twelve miles distant. 



This camp was one of the prettiest of the whole march, on the 

 , curve of the river, fringed with large cottonwoods growing at in- 

 tervals. The air was mild and balsamic, the moon shone brightly, 

 and all was as still as death, except when a flock of geese or sand- 

 cranes were disturbed in their repose. Several large cat fish and 

 soft-shell turtle were caught, and we saw^ blue-winged ducks^ 

 plovers, doves, and a few meadow larks. 



Nx) fact proves the indolence and incapacity of the Mexican for 

 sport or for war more glaringly, than that these imnjense flights of 

 sand-cranes and geese are found quietly feeding wdthin gunshot dis- 

 tance of their houses and largest towns. Going into Albuquerque^ 

 I started a hungry-looking wolf in a water melon patch, close un- 

 der the walls of the town. 



October 4. — The wagons rfiounted the sand hills w^th great diffi- 

 culty. The river inpinges so close on the hills as to make it n^- 

 cessary, on the western side, to mount the table lands. These plains, 

 reaching to the base of the mountains, are of the same character as 

 heretofore^mentioned, of rolling sand hills, covered with obionCjCane- 

 scens, pros'opis glandulosa, (romeria,) riddeilia tagetiaa, paga-paga 



an abundant shrubby plant, belonging to the family of the ama- 



ranths, but a genus not yet described — a new dieteria, a new fallu- 

 gia, baileya multiradiata, abronia melHfera, and a few^ patches of 





grama. This last is the only nutriment the plains afford for horses 

 and cattle; but mules and asses, when hard pressed, will eat the 

 trato and the romeria. The chamisa grows to a considerable height, 

 ^nd the stalk is sometimes two or three inches in diameter; a fire 

 can be made of it sufficient to boil a kettle or roast an esr^. To- 

 ay I eat, for the first time, the fruit of the prickly pear, the ^^yerba 

 de la vivera," of the Mexicans; as I was thirsty, it tasted truly de- 

 licious, havingj the flavor of a lemon with crushed sugar. 



Below La Joya two sand hill spurs, overlaid witk fragments of 

 lava and trap, project from the east and west, closing the valky, 

 just leaving sufficient space for the river to pass betweeft. The 



