TO HORSE-HEAD CROSSING. 
65 
dance and timbered land. But all these, even if given 
to the occupant, are of little value when life and pro- 
perty are unsafe. A number of hogs were running 
about quite wild, of which a couple were killed, to add 
to our stock of fresh meat. 
The Llano is the finest stream we have yet met in 
Texas, the Guadalupe alone excepted. Where we forded 
it, it was two feet deep and one hundred and fifty in 
width. At a short distance was a rapid, with fall enough 
for mills. On the opposite bank we found the traces of a 
large Indian encampment, which, from appearances, 
must have been occupied a long time : it was probably 
the habitation of those who destroyed the settlement 
referred to. Left for Mr. Thurber and his party a note 
affixed to a pole, stating that we had passed on. After 
getting our teams up the opposite bank, which was very 
steep and rocky, and attended with considerable diffi- 
culty, we continued our march nine miles over a fine 
country to Comanche Creek, a small stream then nearly 
dry. Where we encamped, there was no running 
water ; the little that remained stood in pools among the 
rocks in the bed of the stream. It was, however, clear 
and very good. In one of these pools, not exceeding 
sixty feet in length and eighteen inches in depth, I saw 
a number of mullet from ten to fourteen inches long, and 
several gar-pike about two feet in length. There were 
no small fish in the pool, the gars having doubtless 
devoured them. Some of our men got into the water 
with bushes, drove the fish to one end of the pool, and 
caught some of the mullet, which proved to be good 
eating. The water line on the banks of this stream 
showed it to be some six feet below its ordinary heighL. 
VOL. I. — 5 
