432 KEPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



assistance necessary to the undertaking, that I deferred my visit until 

 after my trip to the Moqui Pueblos in Arizona. It is somwhat singu- 

 lar that so interesting a region should be so little known, for but few of 

 the persons residing about Defiance and Wingate have ever been to the 

 spot or appear to know anything more than the fact of the existence 

 of the ruins. Many of the Indians who reside near Defiance are familiar 

 with the locality, bnt dread to visit it at this time of the year on account 

 of the well-known dearth of w^ater and of grass necessary to sustain 

 their animals. Upon my return the same difficulty was met with again, 

 but hearing of parties at San Ysidro that might assist me, 1 journeyed 

 thither, and soon made an engagement with a Mr. Beaumont. He was 

 not acquainted with the country beyond the Puerco,. but, what served 

 my puri)ose better, was a good interpreter. In the Pueblo of Jemez, 

 three miles above San Ysidro, we found Hosta, the old ex-governor of 

 Jemez, and the same brave-looking warrior whose portrait appears in 

 Simpson's Journal. He accompanied that expedition as a guide, and 

 was then spoken of as a fine looking aud most intelligent Indian, whose 

 vivacity and off-hand graciousness made him a great favorite. If his 

 estimate of his present age is correct, he must have been upward of 

 fifty years of age at that time, as he now shows every indication of bear- 

 ing the four score or more years that he claims. His small frame is bent 

 by disease and age, and his dim watery eyes look out through thin locks 

 of straggling gray hair that but scantily cover his head. He declared 

 himself, however, to be as good a man as any of us, and was at once 

 ready to undertake the office of guide, stipulating only that his grand- 

 son, a lad of twelve or fifteen years, should accompany him, merely for 

 the use of his eyes, as his own were failing aud he feared he should not 

 be able to recognize distant landmarks. 



The trader's store at Jemez furnished us the only means of outfitting 

 short of Santa Fe or Fort AVingate, but we did not need much, and all 

 our supplies were packed upon one mule, the*three besides myself who 

 constituted the party riding the same useful animals. 



Starting out early on the morning of May 7, our first day's journey 

 brought us to the bridge over the Puerco, near the Cerro Cabezou. Late 

 rains had filled its usually dry bed with such a flow of w^ater that we 

 judged it unwise to attempt any ford, and we knew of no bridge above 

 this one, otherwise it would have been a much more direct course to 

 have followed approximately the trail as laid down on Simpson's map. 

 From the bridge we first journeyed northward four or five miles, then, 

 entering a narrow canon, bore off northwesterly, and, after crossing a 

 low divide, came in about four miles more to the Caiiada del Lumbre, iu 

 the bed of which we found a few pools of water. Crossing another low 

 divide an hour's ride brought us to the valley of the Torrejon. There is 

 some good land here, which has been utilized, as long as Hosta can re- 

 member, by the ]N"avajos, for planting corn. Occasional cottonwoods 

 line the banks of the dry arroyo, and impart a little freshness to an 

 otherwise desolate monotony. Two miles above where we came into 

 the valley, are a number of large water-pockets, the work of the agricul- 

 turists, who are now just beginning to break the soil. Four or five miles 

 beyond this point the valley narrows to a caiion and the dry arroyo in- 

 creases in depth so that it is difficult to cross. In this we were finally 

 compelled to make our camp, as it afforded the only grass for our ani- 

 mals, an accidental pool furnishing the necessary water. 



After an hour's ride on the following day we left the Torrejon to our 

 right, where a broad open valley opened out to the north, aud kept on 

 in our almost due northwest course, rising almost imi^erceptibly over a 



