118 
DELAWARE CREEK 
lupe Mountain, reaching a boiling spring about five 
o’clock. There are here three fine springs, one of 
which tasted strongly of sulphur; the second seemed 
impregnated with salts of soda, while the third 
was very pure. Found good grazing in the valley 
wdiere we stopped, with a little grove of trees, a pretty 
place to have spent a day in, had circumstances 
rendered it proper ; but while our animals were in a 
condition to move, I determined to press them to their 
utmost. Estimated distance travelled to-day, thirty- 
five miles. 
The Guadalupe had been before us the whole day, 
and we all expected to reach it within a couple of 
hours after leaving camp. But hour after hour we 
drove directly towards it, without seeming to approach 
nearer; and finally, after journeying ten hours, the 
mountain seemed to be as distant as it was in the 
morning. Such is the great clearness of the atmos- 
phere here, that one unused to measuring distances 
in elevated regions is greatly deceived in his cal- 
culations. When this mountain was first discovered 
we were more than one hundred miles off. Even 
then its features stood out boldly against the blue 
sky ; and when the rays of the morning sun were shed 
upon it, it exhibited every outline of its rugged sides 
with as much distinctness as a similar object would in 
the old States at one fifth the distance. Often have I 
gazed at the Katskill Mountains in sailing down the 
Hudson ; and though at a distance of but twelve 
miles, I never saw them as distinctly, as the Guada- 
lupe Mountain appeared sixty miles off. 
For several 'miles before reaching the springs we 
