DELAWARE CREEK 
1:^22 
and was interspersed with what looked like silvery 
and tranquil lakes, glittering in the sun, seeming, as it 
were, to tempt the weary traveller to their brink. 
Our young men cried out “Water! ” delighted with the 
idea of again enjoying this luxury after a long day’s 
ride. But the whole turned out a delusion; what 
appeared to be the glassy surface of a lake or pond, 
being nothing but the saline incrustations of a dried 
up lake. The vast plain, or desert, as it may with 
more propriety be called, as far as the eye could 
reach, was dotted with these saline depressions. 
Before we had got through this pass we came 
upon another broken wagon, and among its iron work 
were so fortunate as to find a bolt precisely the size 
of the one we had broken. The wire was quickly 
knocked out, and the bolt inserted in its place ; after 
which the driver put on his whip, and w^e rolled over 
the hard and excellent road at a rapid pace. 
The summit of the mountain appears to be covered 
with heavy pine timber ; but its rocky sides exhibit 
no foliage, except in the deep chasms which run from 
it in every direction. At its base, too, we noticed 
large trees of pine, oak, cedar, etc. 
We had now ridden the entire day without water 
for our animals, not discovering a spring which is 
noted on the map as Ojo del Guerpo^ and at which I 
had proposed stopping. Our leather tank was empty, 
and I began to feel anxious on our own account, as the 
next water laid down on the map is at the Gornudos del 
Alamo ^ thirty miles distant. The road was now pretty 
good, and we went over it on a fast trot. On the left 
we passed a range of hills of pure white sand, the 
