TO HORSE-HEAD CROSSING. 
83 
They lay north-east and south-west from each other, 
and the train passed directly between them. While the 
train moved along I ascended the easterly mound, 
accompanied by several others, to see what was the 
character of the country before us. These mounds or 
hills are about five hundred feet high, and had been 
but recently burnt over ; hence their color was far 
from being green. Not a blade of grass was to be 
seen. A few half-burnt bushes and tufts of the yucca 
were all the vegetation that remained. From the 
summit we saw the line of the Concho River running 
in a northeasterly direction, some six or seven miles 
distant. Reached it at five o’clock, when, to our 
great joy, we again struck the Emigrant Road, which we 
had last seen south of the San Saba. Very few trains 
had passed over it, so that it was not more distinct than 
the roads or paths through a northern meadow. 
We had now been travelling eight days over a 
district one hundred and fifty miles in extent, with no 
other guide than a compass. From the point where 
we left Brady’s Creek, we had pursued a course as 
directly west as the nature of the country would admit, 
with no land-mark but the Green Mounds, which 
we had seen about forty miles before reaching them. 
In this march we had frequently crossed a single wagon 
trail, which we took to be that of Major Bryan, of the 
United States Topographical Engineers, who, in June 
and July of the previous year, ha& passed this way."^' 
The character of the country the last three or four 
^ Since my return from the survey, I have seen the printed Eeport 
of the Reconnoissance made by Major Bryan, which convinces me that 
our routes were nearly the same. 
