52 SUFFERING FROM THIRST. 



drank large quantities without suffering from it.* Our animals and 

 men being much jaded from travelling over this rough and forbidding 

 country, we turned down towards the river after a short halt at the 

 grotto, and on reaching it found the water still very bitter and un- 

 palatable. As the day was very warm, (the thermometer standing, at 

 12 o'clock m., at 104° Farenheit in the shade) with no air stirring, the 

 reflection of the sun's rays from the white sand in the bed of the river 

 made it exceedingly oppressive. 



At sundown we bivouacked near a small pool of muddy water, a little 

 better than that in the river, but still very unpalatable. In despite of 

 this, as we were suffering much from the intense thirst caused by the 

 heat of the day, and from drinking the nauseating water we had met 

 with upon the march, we indulged freely ; but instead ot allaying thirst 

 it only served to increase it. 



The country over which we have passed to-day, upon both sides of 

 the river, has been cut up by numerous deep gorges extending from the 

 chain of mural escarpments that terminate the " Llano estacado" to the 

 river, and in many of these are small streams of water which issue from 

 springs in the rocky sides of the gorges. We have met with no 



*As this spring issued directly from the pure gypsum rock, I procured a speci- 

 men of the water, which has been analyzed under the direction of Professor W. 

 S. Clarke, in the laboratory of Amherst College, and may, I think, be regarded as 

 containing those ingredients which communicate that peculiar disagreeable taste 

 to all the water in this country that flows over a gypsum formation. The analy- 

 sis resulted as follows : 



Water, in fluid ounces ,- 4. 



Water in fluid grammes 127.500 



Hydro sulphuric acid present Oil 



Chlorine 014 



Lime 090 



Sulphuric acid 227 



Soda and magnesia, about 130 



These elements, united in the form of salts, would give the following results : 



Weight of sulphate of lime 219 



Weight of sulphate of magnesia „ 088(?) 



Weight of sulphate of soda 073(?) 



Weight of chloride of sodium 023 



Weight of hydrosulphuric acid 011 



Weight of the whole 414 



Per-centage of matter in solution 0.82 



