6 EL PICACHO MOUNTAIN.—TUCZON. 
on the right were low lost mountains, and on the left a Iow ridge, increasing in altitude towards 
the south. Camped at 11} p. m., upon the hard clay surface of the drain for this vast area, 
without water or grass, having made twenty-three miles. 
February 17.—Started at sunrise, continuing on our general course south 35? east. In front 
are two gaps, separated by a peculiarly castellated mountain, El Picacho, rising abruptly from 
the plain, through the eastern one of which passes our road. During the morning a few scat- 
tering bunches of grass were seen on either side of the road, affording a happy relief to the 
painful monotony of this almost desert. The road, still hard and firm, continues up the smooth 
drain with an apparently uniform ascent to the eastern gap, which we reached at 1 p. m., and 
fortunately found some pools of rain-water, surrounded by quite a dense growth of mezquite. 
This gap is not a notch or depression in the crest of a continuous ridge, but an extension of the 
plain narrowed down by bare, rugged peaks of almost solid rock, rising abruptly from the 
plain. Leaving the gap at 5 p. m., we continued over the same character of country until 10 p. 
m., camping by the road-side without grass or water—distance twenty-eight miles. 
February 18.—A smart shower aroused the camp at an early hour this morning. The teams 
were soon harnessed, and we were again on the road at daylight. On the clearing away of the ` 
clouds, we found ourselves travelling directly for a gap separating a low ridge on the west from 
one probably two thousand five hundred feet high at its terminus, and extending eastward 
until lost below the horizon. The summits of this ridge are whitened with this morning's fall 
of snow, which was confined to those high altitudes. El Picacho looms up, with its well-defined 
and angular profile, a most prominent landmark. 
At half-past 9 we struck the sandy bed of a stream leading from the gap, and bearing towards 
the Gila in a northwesterly course. Crossing the bed, we turned the point of a low ridge on 
the right of the gap—made up of huge, shapeless masses of trachytic rock, with a few scattering 
argillaceous nodules—and found, a short distance beyond, another pool of rain-water; but there 
not being a sufficiency of grass, and finding that it increased in quantity and improved in 
quality as we advanced, we pushed on still further, following the valley of the dry stream, and 
camped about noon by a water-hole with abundance of grass and wood. We have here not only 
the bunch-grass, but also the grama, which, although dry, possesses a great deal of nourish- 
ment. The cotton-wood makes its appearance—the first we have seen since leaving the Gila. 
From the river to the entrance of this gap there extends a plain of gradual and apparently 
uniform ascent towards the south, with a surface free from washes and deep drains, but studded 
with isolated peaks and ridges, (lost mountains,) which, seen from a distance, have the appear- 
ance of continuity, and impress the traveller with the idea of being in the centre of a vast basin 
surrounded by chains of mountains.. The soil of this plain changes from a dry, ashen loam at 
the Gila, through a reddish argillaceous sand, to a gravel as we approached the ridges and 
peaks; and yields a growth of stinted artemisia and larrea, with mezquite in the low portions, 
and cereus giganteus, midst other varieties of the cactus, upon the uplands. Scattered patches 
of grass were found by the roadside. "These mountains are of peculiar form and shape. Their 
serrated crests and faces, often vertical and cliff-like, surmounting the slopes of the debris, give 
the whole, particularly when aided by mirage, a semblance to the crumbling towers of a fallen 
castle. The rock is volcanic, vesicular, and of a reddish color, which throws over the ridges of 
the distant landscape quite a purplish tint, forming a pleasing éontrast with the glare and 
reflection from the parched plain. Within this gap we find the deep sand-bed of a dry stream, 
whose banks and terraces increase in altitude as we ascend ; being at camp from fifteen to twenty 
feet high, and extending back to the mountains on either side. 
February 19.—Remained in camp to-day, and took repeated readings of the barometers. 
February 20.—Got under way at sunrise. Seven miles of good road, through the mezquite 
growth adjacent to the stream-bed, brought us to Tuczon. In order to allay any fears and cor- 
rect all misapprehensions on the part of the inhabitants with reference to our movements and 
probable connexion with the lawless expedition then on foot for the seizure of this country, we 
