106 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
Tecoloti, Indian villages west of the Baboquivari Peak, to the 
valley of the Altar River, and although the country looked 
anything but inviting, the direction suited us, and we de- | 
termined to follow it. 
About thirty miles of terribly rough, inhospitable country — 
lay between the open plains we were just leaving and the — 
Altar River; and so difficult was it to find the way through — 
the endless hills and dales, crags and dry water-courses, here _ 
encountered, that two American prospectors a year and a half 
ago lost their way and nearly perished in trying to cross it 
in the opposite direction. After travelling some seven miles — 
we came to a spring known as Ojo de Santa Lucia, where we — 
watered our mules, and on starting afresh, found ourselves — 
suddenly in the midst of an Indian rancheria. Huts ap-_ 
peared all around us, and in considerable alarm I cocked my 
carbine, and certainly expected that we were in for a fight. — 
I had quite forgotten the Papagos, in whose lands we were 
travellmg. These were their huts, so there was nothing to — 
fear. Between twenty and thirty temporary huts represented ; 
a large party of Indians, who were making one of their | 
periodical journeys into Sonora from their own villages in 
Arizona, to trade with the Mexicans; and we perceived, from — 
the pony and cattle tracks, that they had much stock with — 
them. 
Twenty miles further, we entered a district at the foot — 
of a lofty conical hill, called Sombraritto, from its resem- — 
blance to a hat, where a great number of gold quartz veins — 
crop out on all sides, and where native miners are wont — 
to wash for gold at certain seasons when the gullies contain | 
water. Here the little indistinct paths were so numerous — 
that we lost our way, and got entangled in the cafions and ' 
arroyos which cut the country into a thousand segments. — 
