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LEAYE THE PARTY FOE SANTE EE. 127 





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:'emarkal)le for their purity.* Coal is also found near" these 

 prings, as well as in a bed near Agua Zarca, whence it has 



■ een carried six miles for use at Yegas. 

 1 Having now reached a district where hostile Indians were 



^ iO longer to be feared, General Palmer, wishing to see as much 



1;^ the country as possible, and being tired of the necessarily 



I 



^p^v adyance of the surveyors^ determined to go on to Santa 

 ?-':M Fe independently. So the 2nd of 'September 



fonnd ns — Palmer^ Colton and* myself, with a 





\ 3ry intelligent Mexican guide^ Espobal, and one servant — 

 Vending onr way tlu'ougli the heantifnlly wooded valleys and 



'rctnresqne gorges which gradually slope down to the Eio Pecos. 



Jehind followed onr hnmble wagon carrying onr luggage 

 f'^d provisions^ and drawn by two weedy Mexican mules. A 



bor crippled Mexican as driver, who had at one time barely 

 j^ljcaped from the Indians with his life, completed the ^^ outfit " 

 ^i-the best we could get at Los Yegas, but one which broke 

 ^^r>Avn, as might have been expected, at the first difficulty we 



icountered. We carried no tents ; Palmer, Colton and the 

 viide were on horseback^, I had to content myself with a 

 lie, an animal by no means to be despised in the Far West 





; ovided he be a good one. Our spirits were high and our 

 i i'arts light as we felt the freedom of travelling quite inde- 

 ^mdently, and we watched with all the interest which the 

 lleat object of our trip inspired, the general features of the 

 f /autiful country as they opened before us at every step. 

 f 'A glance at the map mil show that the course taken by us 



* About one and a half miles west of the hot springs there are two nearly 

 /tical beds of iron ore, the eastern one' is a stratified mixture of quartz and 



gnetic. oxide, 4 feet thict, and bearing north 70"^ east, with a dip of about 

 ^ to the south and oast. One hundred yards north of this bed is a granite 

 Hi with red felspar, 6 feet wide, carrying much specular iron, which is slightly • 

 Vftniferous. A shaft was sunk 14 feet upon it by Mr. Erminger in pursuit of 

 her metals. 



