86 NEW TEAGKS IN NOHTH AiVTEEICA. 



Every time tlic muddy water of the river is turned upon 

 the land, it deposits its sedijicnt, highly charged with the 

 fertilising produce of the decomposed mountain rock; and, 

 like the Nile, always keeps the ground rich and productive, 

 without any other kind of manure being necessary. 



Leaving the A^^alley on the 24th of July, for the more 

 July 24. elevated plateau, we found the country every- 

 where covered with the rich Grama grass of Kew Mexico, 

 yielding the best possible pastm-age; and day by day, as our 

 course led us usually some eight or ten miles fi'om the river, 

 we had no difficulty in obtaining good camping places, at the 

 head of some ravine or washed-out gully, which cut its way 

 through the edge of the plateau into the valley. In such a 



situation we usually found a good spring or a water-hole, 



hollowed out in a rock, containing a plentiful supply of good 

 water. 



Along the sides of those ravines, and dotted about along 

 the hillocks and cliffs, were abundance of cedar trees, but 

 these were seldom large enough to be useful for any other 

 purpose than fii-e-wood. Over all this pasture region, it was 

 *are indeed to see domestic animals of any kind, though herds 

 of antelope were abundant. Once or twice a miserable flock 

 of Mexican sheep, or rather sheep and goats mixed, were 

 found in some hollow ; but as a general rale, the whole of 

 this district is at present unoccupied. 



On the 25th, we visited a cmious monument on the face of 



1 



a sandstone rock, facing the Pm-gatoire, about forty miles 

 from its mouth. This was a representation of a bear, rudely 

 painted, life size, on the flat porous surflice. The proportions 

 were good, and the attitude very natural. The animal was 

 represented sniffing the air, and the colouring matter used 

 had simk so far into the rock, that although it had to some 



