64 Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



leaving our last night's camp, for a mile, the general appearance^ 

 width of the valley, and soil, much resemble the most fertile parts 

 ofthat river. This, so far, has decidedly the hest soil, andthe 

 fall of the river being greater, makes it more easy to irrigate. 



To-day we passed one of the long sought ^ruins. T examined it 

 minutely, and the only evidences of handicraft remaining, were 

 immense quantities of broken pottery, extending for two miles 

 along the river. There were a great many stones, rounded by at- 

 trition of the water, scattered about; and, if they had not occa- 

 sionally been disposed in lines formjng rectangles with each otlierj 

 the supposition would be, that they had been deposited there by 

 natural causes. 



Octoher 24. — To-day we laid by to recruit. Although the moon 

 was not in a favorable position, I availed myself of the opportunity 

 to get a few lunar distances. 18 circum-meridian altitude of beta 

 aquarii, and 12 altitudes of polaris,*give for the latitude of the 

 place 32'' 44' 52'', and 8 distances between c and Fomalhaut give 

 for the longitude 109=^ 22' 00''. We. feasted to-day on the blue 

 quail and teal, and at night Stanly came in v.^ith a goose. '^ Signs^ 

 of beaver and deer were very distinct; these, with the wolf, con- 

 stitute the only animals yet traced on the river. 



Octoher 25. — The general character of the country is much the 

 same as before represented; but towards camp, it broke into irreg- 

 ular and fantastic looking mountains. A rose-colored tint was im- 

 parted to the whole, landscape, by the predominance of red fehl' 

 spar. The road became broken and dithcult as it wound its way 

 around two short canons. 



We were now in the regions made famous in olden times by the 

 fables of Ftiar Marcos, and eagerly did we ascend every mound^"^^' 

 pecting to see in the distance what I fear is but the fabulous ^^ Casa 

 Montezuma.*' Once, as Ave turned a sharp hill, the bold outline ol 

 a castle presented itself, with the tops of the walls horizontal, the 

 corners vertical, and apparently one front bastioned. My com- 

 panion agreed with me that we at last beheld this famed building; 

 on we spurred our unwilling brutes; restless for the show, I tlrevr 

 out my telescope, when to my disappointment a clay butte, ^vitil 

 regular horizontal seams, stood in the place of our castle; hnt^^^ 

 the naked eye the delusion was complete. It is not impossible 

 that this very butte, v^'hich stands on an imposing height in the centre 

 of a vast amphitheatre of turreted hills, has been taken by tli« 

 trappers, willing to see, and more especially to report marvello^^ 

 things, for the ^^ Casa Montezuma. ■^ The Indians here do net 

 know the name Aztec. ' Montezuma is the outward point in tbei^ 

 chronology; and as he is supposed to have lived and reigned f*^^ 

 all time preceding his disappearance, so do they speak of everj 

 event preceding the Spanish conquest as of the days of'Mon^^' 

 zuma. 



The name, at this mome^t, is as familiar to every Indian, Pueb^^? ^ 

 Apache, and Navajoe, as that of our Saviour or Washington is t" 

 us._ In the person of Montezuma, they unite both qualities of ^'' 

 vinity and patriot. 



^ 



