Ex. Doc. No. 41. 473^ 



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In the evening, at a quarter past ten o'clockj a meteor of dazzling' 

 spleufior dashed across the sky; its path was perpendicular to the 

 horizon, and passed through the head of the constellation draco; 

 the brisrhtness was such as to eclipse the light of the candle by 

 which I was writing; five minutes afterwards I heard a report like 

 that of" a distant cannon. 



October 22. — We now turned our faces eastward, as Acoma is 

 the most western of the New Mexican towns^ Zuni, which, in a 

 •direct line, is said to be but 80 miles to the west, is situated on the 

 tributary waters of the '^ Rio Gila.'' 



Our mules had wandered off a great distance, and, owinor to the 

 difficulty of catching them, we did not leave Acoma until 10 

 -o'clock. We then star' ed for ^^ Rito," a Spanish town. I remained 

 behind some time, in order to sketch one of the passes to the town 

 of Acoma. This one only is practical for foot passengers. There 

 are, besides, two others, one of which can be passed on horseback^ 

 tut the principal one is that by which we went up yesterday. 



Our course, for the first two miles, led us off in a southeastern 

 direction- In this short distance we descended rapidly, and having 

 gotten safely over a dangerous road, we found ourselves much 

 lower than we were yesterday. We had reached a second level, 

 "below that of the light red sandstone of Acoma. The high es- 

 carpments between which we passed, presented fine views of the 

 superposition of the different strata. Uppermost is the hard and 

 compact sandstone, such as forms the rock of Acoma; then comes 

 a hard whitish clay; then a dark sandstone, of a red color; and 

 finally, a reddish brown, ferruginous, and sandy clay. 



We now travelled northeast, and parallel to our route from La- 

 guna to Acoma; and although not more than four or five miles dis- 

 'tant from our course of the preceding day, yet the coilntry presents 

 » new aspect. Having reached this second mesa, and being forced 

 hy our route to travel close to the foot of a high escarpment, we 

 could not s'ee over it, and therefore could not discover any of the 

 points we had already noticed. Several times the trail we were 

 following gave out; at last, quite late, we struck a fresh trace of a 

 carreta. We followed this trace until night closed upon us. 

 There was no moon, and dark clouds dimmed the stars; we all riis- 

 mounted, and in silence endeavored to keep upon the path. Aided 



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l3y frequent flashes of lightning, we kept the track, and urged on 

 "Our jaded animals, hoping soon to reach a stream. At length our 

 "Wagon arrived at a slight sandy acclivity, where the mules, wora 

 out by the difficulties of the road, completely broke down. Here 

 "We encfmped; on a sand knoll we pitched our tent, and then sent 

 out one of the men in search of water, for we had not seen one 

 drop since we left our morning's camp. We now lit a cheerful fire 

 •of artemisias, and then sat down to a supper of delicious ribs of 

 -roasted mutton, such as is only found in the mountain region of 

 New Mexico. We were hardly comfortably seated, when a terri- 

 "ble squall of wind arose, accompanied by a slight rain. In the 

 midst of the squall our tent blew over, and we were obliged to re- 

 *x it several times. We luckily had some extra mule pickets that 



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