ALAMO MUCHO. 127 
able streams which sometimes spring up in desert 
regions. It rises in the very centre of barrenness, 
flows for about a mile, and is again absorbed by the 
‘desert. It has worn for itself a bed about fifteen feet 
below the plain. It is from three to nine inches in 
depth, and varies from six feet to as many yards in 
width. Where the banks have been washed away, it 
receives, in several places, accessions from springs; but 
when these cease, the stream grows less and less, until 
itis all absorbed by the sands. In the ravine or bed 
formed by this water, mezquit bushes grow to the 
height of ten or twelve feet, the deep green of their 
_ foliage presenting a pleasing contrast with the desola- 
tion around, and marking the course of the stream from 
its beginning to its end. The grass, which grows 
in a few patches, in little nooks which receive their 
moisture from the creek, is very coarse and wiry; and 
of this there is not enough to supply the few passing 
trains that come this way. The heat here to-day was 
insupportable,the mercury ranging at 114° in the shade. 
The rays of the sun beat through our tents, so that we 
could not remainin them. Some retreated beneath the 
wagons; while myself and others found our way into 
little gullies or ravines beneath the clay banks, where, 
partly sheltered by the banks and partly by bushes, we 
passed the day. 
We had much trouble here with our mules, who did 
not like the coarse grass before them; so that while 
the herders thought that they were quietly trying to 
pick up a living on the margin of the stream, they were 
«Off at full speed for Vallecita, where they had a recol- 
— lection of better fare.- Some were arrested in their 
