18 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
The most southern spur of the Miembres Mountains, called, 
from its highest summit, Cooke’s Peak Range, is about twen y 
five miles long. Seven miles from its termination it is cw t 
through by Cooke’s Cafion ; but Palmer had heard at Santa z 
that another pass existed more to the north, that a train @ 
wagons had once passed through it, and that it was prac 
ticable for a railroad. "We now set to work to find this pass 
Our guide, Juan Arrolles, had never even heard of it. Nothins 
daunted, we started at daybreak next morning, a little pa 
of six, up into the mountains. By twelve o’clock we were 
resting our panting horses and surveying the peaks all around 
us from a grass-covered eminence. Looking westward, we 
saw, a few miles distant, a deep break in the mountains, and 
a cafion, or narrow arrayo, leading to it. This we followed 
Every mile it became better and smoother, and opened straight 
upon the plain without any precipitous descent. Our delight 
was great; so we determined to turn back, and trace the 
caiion, if possible, across the medium line of the mountains, 
and see if it opened upon the eastern plain from which we had 
come. After riding all day, we came in view of the eastern 
plain, just as sufficient light remained to see it, and to pro 
that our labour had not been in vain. We were still far f 
camp; mountains were all around us; the sun had set; there 
was no moon ; and darkness soon covered everything. W: 
could not so much as see the face of our compass, and had t 
keep in the closest single file, for fear of losing each seit ; 
It was in such a predicament as this that the wonderfa 
faculty of locality which is peculiar to the semi-civilised m 
shone out so conspicuously. Not one of us could tell eve 
the direction of camp; yet the Mexican guide ees u 
straight to it, after a three hours’ ride, over country he h 
never traversed before, and this, too, i in pitch darkness. It wi 
nevertheless a sete ride, » for, regardless of obstacles, we 
