PERILOUS POSITION — ANCIENT CRATER. 109 



deep, which made the travelling slow and laborious. All trace of 

 vegetation had vanished, and even the unfailing artemisia had dis- 

 appeared. The animals were so tired and weak that the whole 

 party was on foot, driving our herd before us. The mule which 

 had given out in the afternoon was now unable to proceed, and 

 had to be abandoned in the midst of the plain, where it no doubt 

 perished. Many others showed symptoms of extreme exhaustion, 

 so that their packs had to be shifted and lightened repeatedly. I 

 began to entertain serious fears that I should not be able to reach 

 the mountain with them ; nor was I certain that when we did reach 

 it we should be able to find water in time to save their lives. The 

 night was consequently passed in a state of great anxiety. We 

 continued on until after midnight, crossing occasionally some little 

 drains of salt water coming from the north, when we reached a 

 small isolated butte, which was only a pile of barren rocks, with 

 scarce a blade of grass upon it. Wood or water there was none ; so, 

 although the night was quite cold, we laid ourselves down, fireless and 

 supperless, upon the sand, wearied to exhaustion by a continuous 

 march of eighteen hours. The only teign of vegetable life to be 

 seen here was a small chenopodeaceous plant, without leaves, but 

 having long prickles. The artemisia had entirely disappeared. 

 On each side of us, to the north and the south, was a rocky island 

 or butte, similar in character to the one near which we had halted, 

 but much larger. 



Monday^ October 29. — -.On awaking early, we found the mules 

 gathered around us, looking very dejected and miserable. They 

 had searched in vain for food, and were now in nearly a starving 

 condition. Before us, indeed, lay the mountain where we hoped 

 to find both food and water for them, but between lay a mud- 

 plain fifteen or twenty miles in extent, which must be crossed be- 

 fore we could reach it. I was much afraid the animals were too 

 weak to succeed in the attempt, but it was our only hope. We 

 set out, the whole party on foot, pursuing the same general course 

 of south-west by west that we had followed yesterday. 



The island, at the foot of which we had slept last night, presented 

 sections of sandstones and shales, which appeared to be of com- 

 paratively recent origin. They had evidently been somewhat 

 altered by heat, but not to any great extent. At the north-east 

 point of the island on our left, the strata were inclined at an angle 

 of 70° to north-east. No fossils were found in them. Near the 

 western side of this rocky protrusion, I observed what appeared 



