374 CORRELITOS 
bushes projected. At nine o'clock, Leroux returned 
to us with the pack-mules, when we stopped and 
unloaded the wagons, 'to transfer their contents to the 
animals’ backs. It was now raining fast; and as the. 
mules had had a tedious march over the sant hills and 
back, Leroux thought it best to remain where he was 
until: day-light, while we pushed forward with the 
_ wagons, now almost empty. 
Slowly and with hard tugging, we again advanced, 
but not noiselessly ; for the incessant hooting and yell- 
ing of the teamsters, accompanied by the cracking of 
their huge whips, and not a few of those terrible oaths 
which they seem to consider it their privilege to use, 
made the air resound in the midst of the solitude that 
reigned around us. At every fifty feet it was neces 
sary to stop, and let the tired animals breathe and get 
a moment’s rest; then would the air resound again 
with the screams of the men and the lashing of the 
whips; then was every shoulder literally put to the 
wheels and the back parts of the wagons, before they 
could again be started. But with all this pulling and 
pushing, this hard swearing and beating, the poor 
jaded animals often stalled, and could not, with all the 
aid the men could give them, start the wagons an inch. 
The team was then doubled; and when the twelve mules 
had succeeded in hauling the wagon up some little rise, 
the descent would prove a great relief, and enable 
them to get forward a few rods unaided. 
The reader will have an idea of the sand here, 
when I state that the hub of the fore wheel was only 
the breadth of my hand above its surface. This too, 
was with wagons not half filled, and ata time when 
