466 -Ex. Doc. No. 41. ' 



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After marching eight railes, we arrived at a place where the road 

 forked, and taking the plainest, we followed t until it disappeared 

 entirely. It was one of the roads that the inhabitants of Atrisco 

 and Albuquerque travel when they go to' get fire-wood. Many 

 roads of this kind, in the neighborhood of Mexican villages, fre- 

 quently perplex and entangle the traveller. ' ", 



We now bore due west, and at 4 , o'clock reached the ^^Rio 

 Puerco.^' After a strict search up and down the river for several 

 miles, we formed our camp near a little pool of water, the only 

 one w* Touii* ^n^. The road we came had been very sandy, and 

 our mules were very much distressed by their labor, » 



The valley of the Puerco is wide and fiat, overgrown with 

 varieties of artemisias and coarse grass, fit only for sheep and goats. 

 The banks df the river are of stiff loamj they are 10 or 12 feet 

 'high, and stand vertically. The country around is very much 

 broken with sand hills, that are overgrown ^with cedar trees, the 

 only kind of timber to 'be seen, except a few cotton-wood trees 

 that are found in the bed of the river. South 15"^ west, lies a 

 grand mountain, about 35 miles distant; it has two principal peaks, 

 and lis present outline greatly resembles that of the Spanish peaks. 

 October 17. — We soon found that by continuing a northerly 

 course, we were leaving the road to Cibolleta; but as our duties re- 

 quire4 us to make a survey of the country, more with the object of 

 finding out unknown things than of travelling known routes, we de- 

 termined to follow up the Puerco far enough .to fix its course, car- 

 rying on- a system of triangulation, by the means of the many 

 high and well characterised pe^ksthat are scattered throughout the 

 country. 



We had a very toilsome marchj the sand was from 5 to 6 inches 

 deep; in many places our load was obstructed by a dense growth of 

 artemisias; our progre?s was extremely alow. At length, about 2 

 "o'clock, our mules gave up and we were forced to halt; fortunately 

 we were near a corn field, and I had them fed with the ears »nd 

 green leaves of the corn. We searched about, hoping to find 

 some dwelling place near; found no signs of any kind, except a 

 narrow path that had not been trod for a long time. The ravens 

 had right of possession, and had eaten much of the corn, and 

 picked all the seeds out of the big pumpkins that were strewed 

 around us. 



We now started off to reconnoitre, and found in the bed of the 

 river, where it was completely hidden by the high banks, a conical 

 hut, composed of light poles covered with boughs of trees and 

 mud; also a corral, but no recent signs of their having been used. 

 We crossed the river and asct-nded a high bluff, noticing remains 

 of buildings on our way, built of flat, stones plastered with clay- 

 Ascending the bluff, we found on its highest portion enclosures of 

 stone; one was circular, 3 feet in height and 10 feet in diameter, 

 and an aperture had been left for a door. Another was elliptical, 

 and its walls had been quite high; besides these, there had been 

 many rectangular shaped structures. We were puzzled to conceive 



for what purposes they had been built. They were more than half 



