COLORADO PLATEAU, NEAR BIG CANON—PARTRIDGE RAVINE. 111 
- The mules, ignorant of what was before them, refused, as mules often do, to drink on the 
morning before leaving camp. A southeast course was followed, which led over an undulating 
surface, where the travelling for a while was tolerably good. A thick growth of cedars and 
pines offered occasional obstructions to the pack animals, who would get their loads tangled 
among the low branches. As the day advanced the heat became more oppressive, and a tract 
was entered where, the soil being loose and porous, the animals sank to their fetlocks at every 
step. Finally asmall but impassable cafion was reached. After several ineffectual and fatiguing 
attempts to cross, we had to head the ravine by climbing the face of a high bluff in which it 
rose. The growth on the side of the ascent was dense, and the ground strewed with sharp 
rocks. Darkness came on before we had quite accomplished the descent upon the opposite side, 
and it was necessary to camp, not only without water, but on a very short allowance of grass. 
All the mules had to be hobbled to prevent them from stampeding back to the lagoons, which 
rendered it still more difficult for them to pick up enough to eat. 
We had made as much easting as possible, being in constant fear, however, of meeting some 
insurmountable cafon that would require a long detour, and lengthen the distance to the belt 
of country south, where we were expecting to find water. 
In spite of all the precautions some of the mules strayed, and while hunting for them a man 
got lost. By the time all were found the sun was high in the heaven, and shining with even 
more fervor than on the previous day. The face of the country continued much the same. The 
trees generally intercepted the view, and the landscape, where seen, was sufficiently monotonous, 
consisting of interminable slopes, broken here and there by a line of low bluffs that marked the 
edge of some higher plateau. At the end of ten miles of weary travel a steep ascent brought 
us to the summit of a table that overlooked the country towards the south for a hundred miles. 
The picture was grand, but the cedars and pines kept it shut out during most of the time, and 
the road was heavier than ever. No place could be descried, far or near, that gave a promise 
of containing water. A more frightfully arid region probably does not exist upon the face of the 
earth. Some difficult ravines were crossed a little before nightfall. The wretched and broken- 
down animals, now forty-eight hours without drinking, and that, too, while making long marches 
under a burning sun, were brought to a halt. They had to be tightly hobbled, for, in their 
frantic desire for water, nothing else could have restrained them from rushing back to the only 
place where they were certain of finding it. Too thirsty to graze, they stood all night about 
camp, filling the air with distressing cries. This morning the weakened brutes staggered under 
their packs as though they were drunk, and their dismal moaning portended a speedy solution 
of their troubles should water not soon be found. 
For the third time the sun rose hot and glaring, and as the great globe of fire mounted the 
heavens its rays seemed to burn the brain. The condition of things was desperate should no 
water be discovered during the day. A single bad cafion or ravine, to turn us from the course 
for any great distance, would be unquestionably the destruction of the train. The scanty 
supply brought in kegs and canteens was exhausted. In this hot, dry atmosphere, when exer- 
cise is taken, the evaporation from the system is very great, and unless this is compensated for 
the body soon becomes intensely parched. The men now suffered as well as the beasts. Mile 
after mile the dreary ride continued, and the flagging pace of the mules showed that they wee 
on the eve of exhaustion, and still the unvarying character of the plateau held out no promise 
of relief. The ground, fortunately, was smooth and level, and the travelling easy. While 
~ 
unconscious of the vicinity of any break in the surface of the plain, we came to the edge of a 
steep declivity, at the bottom of which was a ravine, whose sides displayed the ee 
that are met 1 parallel, but from which we had been Our hop: 
rose upon seeing surfaces not composed of loose pebbles or pore , and we urged the 
fainting animals down the hill. A fresh bear trail crossing the slope was a good sign that the 
almost despaired of element was not far distant. Green grass carpeted the bottom of the ravine, 
and a few hundred yards from its mouth a projecting ledge threw a deep cool shadow over an 
