170 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
The doctor had broken down his favourite mule by the 
length of his geological rambles, but he failed to obtain a 
substitute in the shape of a pony from the Indians. They 
accepted his gifts with much apparent gusto; they willingly 
—rather too willingly—accompanied him in his search for 
fossils and flowers; they exchanged their corn for goods 
when a very advantageous offer was made them, but every- 
thing of value they kept to themselves. 
Our party only succeeded, after infinite bargaining, in 
obtaining two small sheep out of their numerous herds, and 
left, fully persuaded that the Zuftians were the ‘smartest ” 
traders west of the Mississippi. — 
Zui is situated fifty miles to the west of the dividing 
ridge of the continent, called in consequence the Sierra 
Madre ; the divide is crossed vid Navajo Pass at an elevation 
of 7,177 feet, through Zufti Pass at 7,926. Much coal crops 
out in many places on the way to Zufi from the Rio Grande 
valley, and the country about this pueblo is very beautiful 
and fertile, producing abundance of fruit, chiefly peaches, and 
large crops of,maize, without irrigation. 
The western slopes of the Sierra Madre are considered by 
General Palmer to be infinitely superior in every respect to 
those of the Wahsatch Range, which the Mormons have 
colonised for several hundred miles with a population 
amounting to 100,000 souls, converting that so-called desert 
into plantations, orchards, and fields of waving corn. 
About one hundred miles west of the continental divide 
the main line reaches the Colorado Chiquito, and follows the 
valley for about fifty miles; for which distance it varies in 
width from one to three miles, and possesses a rich alluvial 
soil, with abundance of running water for irrigation. Then 
_ Comes a short cafion, above which the valley is fertile and 
