OF SANTO DOMINGO. 



127 



animals this far, but are prevented by want of trail from penetrating more than a 

 mile or two further. The abundance of grass, belly-high to a horse, also attracts 

 wild cattle, and the hunter is occasionally rewarded with an unexpected supply of wild 

 beef. Their custom is to bring into the mountains a supply of salt, and then stay, 

 killing wild pork and beef and diying the meat so long as the salt lasts, or until they 

 reach the full carrying capacity of their animals. The water is, as usual, scarce, but 

 a supply exists, and of pretty good cjuality, in the rocky basins in the bottom of a 

 little ravine on one side of the savana. The rock exposure here was the more 

 welcome because rare. The red soil indicated slate, but here the slate itself appeared, 

 laid bare by the currents of the rainy season, souvenirs of which are preserved along 

 the channel during even the driest years. It must be borne in mind that this is at 

 least a couple of hundred feet above the little canon that drains these hills, and 

 tumbles down a steep bed into the main river. I spent a couple of days in this lovely 

 spot exjjloring the neighborhood. Mr. Speare, to whom the gold pan was intrusted, 

 as usual, " prospected the gulches," and found almost everywhere a " color," and 

 sometimes discovered a dozen " colors " to the pan. And here I may as well repeat 

 what has already been said in more general terms at the end of the chapter on this 

 geological formation : wherever the slates occur in the neighborhood of the eruptive 

 rocks, there gold occurs in most, if not all, of the included quartz veins, and the 

 streams are always more or less auriferous. I do not wish to be understood as stating 

 that there is sufficient inducement to bring foreigners here with the exclusive object 

 of mining gold. Usually the gravels are not rich enough intrinsically, or where they 

 are, the quantity in any one spot is so limited that mining on any large scale is not 

 likely to be profitable, l^or, again, do I wish to discourage the detailed examination 

 of the quartz veins. They are numerous ; and some of the pieces I caused to be 

 examined that did not show free gold, and that were collected by myself as fair 

 specimens, gave returns that would be considered very encouraging in California. 

 Occasionally a vein can be found that, on account of its thickness, extent, general 

 appearance, and the results of assays of its quartz, would certainly be opened in 

 California. I know of no reason why it should not be in Santo Domingo. 



The trail from the Lao-una Savana winds around the head of a little canon and 

 climbs a long ridge covered with a great variety of trees, of which pine is one of the 

 least common, until, reaching a greater height, the pines return, but now very slender 

 and stunted, reminding one forcibly of the pine woods on the summit of the Cascade 

 Mountains of Oreoon on the ridg-e of Mount McLau^'hlin. A fire that had recently 

 passed through the woods had rendered good service in burning out the dead branches 

 and rubbish, disclosing to the view a grand solitude. Not a level tract of an aci-e's 



