GENERAL PALMER ARRIVES, 101 



Colton on tlieir arrival in camp, that we should all three 

 hccome such friends, or travel so many thousand miles 

 together. In introducing my readers to these, my two best 

 friends, it is necessary to say that Palmer and myself are 

 hout the same age, that is, under thirty; though active 

 service in the war^ and the responsibility of being the moving 

 pirit of a great company, have added a few years, in moral 

 ,'iifluence at least, to the former, Colton is qiuite young, and 

 ue of the best fellows living. 



On August the 9th, while the working j)^rties were occu- 

 pied in sm'veying Trinchera Pass, General Wright, General 



Palmer, Colonel Burgeman, &c., started to 

 examine the eastern end of the range. As we 

 'aversed the plain lying south of the mountains, we found 

 he antelope so numerous that they were scarcely ever out ot 

 ight. At every mile we started a fresh herd; but these 

 imid, watchful creatures take fright so easily, that it is next 

 impossible, unless you stalk them with the greatest caution 

 »n foot, to get close enough for a good shot. It is common 

 [imongst the Mexicans and Indians of the country for one of 

 the hunters to envelop himself in a deer-skin, with good-sized 

 antlers, and then to approach the herd, often stopping to lie 

 down, or pretend to graze ; sometimes retii'ing, and again 

 advancing ; until curiosity brings the antelope all round the 

 intruder, when he is able easily to bring down his victim. 



Having skii'ted the mountains for about twelve miles, we 



t^ame to a gap in the range, the situation of which was 



ispecially advantageous, for it lay exactly opposite a grass 



v^alley or depression in the plain, known as the Chaquaco 



"^alley, stretching northward to the lower end of the Eed 



ck Canon of the Purgatoire. "We therefore entered the 



ap and, ascending for two or three miles, soon came into 



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