108 HORSE-HEAD CROSSING 
ropes taken to rescue the animal; for we could not 
afford to lose another. It appeared that in grazing 
too near the bank, which was here some ten or fifteen 
feet above the river, and very precipitous, he had 
fallen over. Several men descended by the aid of 
ropes, and searched along the bank; but the poor 
creature could not be found, and it was supposed 
that he had been swept away by the current. When 
about to move this morning, a neighing was heard 
on the opposite side of the river, which proved to 
proceed from our lost mule. One of the men swam 
across with a rope, pursued and captured him and 
forced him over. the steep bank, when he was drawn 
across the river. The bank was then levelled, and, 
by hard lifting and pulling, the animal was raised up 
and brought back in safety. 
Encamped at half-past three p. m. after travelling 
hours; our mules coming in greatly fatigued. 
November 5th. Intended making an early start this 
morning; but when we came to hitch up the poor 
mules, they looked so lank and miserable, that we 
thought it best to turn them out again for a few hours 
to graze. Again we pursued our course along the 
river for a few miles, when we left it in the hope that 
we should not see it again; but we were doomed to 
disappointment, in coming plump upon it an hour after. 
We had now followed its dreary and monotonous banks 
for six days, and longed for a change of scene. Even 
the jornada of sixty-five miles presented novelties which 
the Pecos had not. The constant fear of being ove!” 
taken by a storm, the brackish water, and that always 
difficult to obtain, the miserable grass, and the deficiency 
