172 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA, 
over which they pass, thus forming innumerable cajions 
which bar the way westward in the less elevated and 
apparently smoother country below their mountain-sources. 
It was not the wish of our surveyors to carry a line of 
railway over the actual base of the San Francisco peaks at an 
elevation exceeding 7,000 feet for 100 miles, if a lower grade 
could be obtained farther south. With this object in view, 
General Palmer, after having pushed rapidly forward in 
advance of the parties to Prescott, determined to retrace his 
steps through this intricate cafion country, and ascertain if 
there was any possibility of finding a practicable route through 
it. He was accompanied during these excursions by Hinch- 
man, whom my readers will remember as one of my com- 
panions in the earlier chapters; and he had also a small 
detachment of soldiers and a few more members of the 
survey to assist in the work ; at one time General Gregg, who 
happened to be at Prescott, joined him with his escort. As 
General Palmer has himself furnished me with a short account 
of his adventures whilst conducting these reconnoissances, 
written on the spot with all the freshness which the vivid 
recollections of scenes just passed alone can give, I will tell 
the story in his own words :— 
Camp in — Cafion, Eastern Foot of — Range, 
n Francisco Mountain. 
Arizona, Dec. 8, 1867. 
After climbing and scrambling among these mountains for 
more than two weeks since leaving Prescott, endeavouring to 
find a route eastward to the Colorado Chiquito without 
passing over San Francisco Mountain, I have at last reached 
the valley of that river, and am waiting here in camp this 
peent December Sunday for the return of Hinchman, whom 
: 2 
fie See 
