54 SAN ANTONIO 
Crossed Sabine Creek, and found both the descent 
and ascent very bad. The banks being high, we had 
to follow the bed of the stream over huge rocks, which 
I feared would disable our wagons. But by dint of 
pushing and lifting, and hitching horses ahead of the 
mules, we succeeded in getting across and on the 
opposite bank without accident. Bits of rolling prairie, 
covered with luxuriant grass, with here and there a 
clump of live-oaks, continued as before. Limestone 
frequently appears above the surface. On reaching 
the Guadalupe River, we stopped at the log houses of a 
small German colony. Among these, I was not a little 
surprised to find one occupied by a gentleman of 
learning and taste, with a choice library of scientific 
books around him. In chemistry and mineralogy, his 
collection was particularly rich; and even in other 
departments of natural science, as well as in history, 
voyages, and travels, it would have been a very 
respectable one in our large cities, where books are 
easily procured. Some good pictures, including co- 
pies from Murillo, evinced his taste in the fine arts. 
There was no floor or glass windows to this humble 
dwelling, and as much daylight seemed to come through 
the openings in the logs as through the windows. A 
plank table, chairs covered with deer skin, and a rude 
platform, on which was spread a bed filled with corn 
husks, but destitute of bed-clothes, constituted the 
furniture. The walls were covered with books, except 
one spot, where wer ifles and fowling 
pieces of various ‘kinds, with other paraphernalia of a 
genuine sportsman; while here and there, jutting out 
from a projecting corner or log, were sundry antlers, 
