134 DELAWARE CREEK 
After a little search we found water in a great cav- 
’ ity or natural tank in the rock about twenty feet above 
our heads, containing about fifty barrels, pure and 
sweet. This tank was covered by a huge boulder, 
weighing some hundred tons, the lower surface of 
which was but four or five feet above the water. 
Searching along the base of the mountain we found 
another cavity, where we watered our animals. There 
remained yet another hour before dark; and as there 
was no grass near, I thought best to push on a few 
miles and stop wherever grass should be found. 
The road leads between the great rocky masses 
described above, when it enters a plain beyond. We 
had scarcely passed the mountain when we met Messrs. 
Thurber and Weems, who were returning from El Paso, 
with ten mules and two men for the assistance of out 
train, which had been promptly furnished by Major 
Van Horne. We bivouacked together, after learning 
that we should find no grass further on. It was poor 
here, and only grew in tufts about the roots of the 
mezquit chapporal; but with the hope of terminating 
our journey on the morrow, we could rest easy. 
supper was cooked with the brushwood of the mezquit ; 
and the evening was spent in asking a thousand ques 
tions of our friends about what they had seen, and how 
civilized people again appeared to them. 
November 13th. Breakfasted and resumed our 
journey before daylight, having twenty-five miles 10 
make before its close. About three miles from the 
Hueco Tanks we passed a range of hills, when a broad 
plain opened upon us in every direction. Here we 
first got a glimpse of Mexico, in a range of mountains 
