“Sir ae 270 
by: finding ing atevoing a halting place of — Sond pea on the cleat wateES 
of the San. lara fork o Rio Virgen 
May 1}.—The morning was cloudy and ‘Quite @ol; with a iavevesie of: 
rain—the first we have had since entering the: desert, a period of twenty-: 
seven-days; and we seem to ha the usual . 
weather of the: Rocky mountains. Our | march to- to-day was” very laborious, 
over very broken ground, | the Santa Clara river ; but then the coun- 
try isno longer so. distressingly desolate. The str is . wood 
with sweet cottonwood trees some of them of large siti ; and on the hills, 
where the nut pine is often seen, a good and wholesome siete fre- 
quently This cottonwood, whieh is now in fruit, is of a d ies 
from any in Michaux’s Sylva. Heavy dark clouds covered ect ies: in thé. 
evening, anda cold wind sprang up, making fires cine overcoats comforta- 
* ble. 
May 12,—A little above our encampment, the river forked ; and we con- 
tit up the right-hand branch, gradually ascending towards the summit 
F the 1 mountain. As we rose veneers the head of the creek, jase mony 
rim of the basin; and, entering it at this pont we found wise ‘an exten- 
ba monnidin meadow, rich in bunch and fresh with” ‘numerous 
it fas Pegas de Santa Clara, which had beehea'tong présdntedaer 
us as the term inating point of the desert, and where the annual caravan 
from, California to New Mexico halted and recruited for some weeks. It 
was a very suitable place to recover from the fatigue and exhaustion of a 
month’s suffering inthe hot and sterile desert. The meadow was about a- 
down to the level of the vegas. Its elevation above the sea was 5,280 feet; 
ee by observation, 37° 28'.28"" ; and its distance from where we first 
« the Spanish trail about four hundred miles. © Fie the time’ 
hed the desert, and aa to skirt, at our descent » Walker's 
Pass | in the Sierra Nevada, travelled 5 
ty-seven days, in that. inh is : 
