TO EL PASO. 
133 
rocks rose perpendicular like walls. From the top 
and in the crevices of these, grew a variety of shrubs. 
A low range of rounded gravelly hills, covered with 
grass, but destitute of trees, bordered the defile ; while 
about half a mile or less beyond, loomed up the great 
mountain, its almost perpendicular sides showing a 
dark brown granite from the base to its very summit. 
So steep is the mountain that it cannot be ascended 
except from the plain above. As we emerged from 
the narrow gorge, the same terraced and castellated 
rocks which we noticed at Castle Mountain appeared 
again, but in more strange and picturesque forms — now 
a fortification, and again some ruined town. These 
terraced hills opened into a plain or amphitheatre about 
three miles across, surrounded by hills and mountains, ex- 
cept on the north. Passing them, we reached the Hueco 
Tanks, and stopped beneath a huge overhanging rock. 
The mountains in which these so-called “ Tanks ” 
are found, are two rocky piles of a similar character to 
the Cornudos del Alamo before described. The rocks, 
however, are thrown together in still wilder confusion, 
and are of more irregular forms. One mass extends 
about a mile along the amphitheatre above mentioned, 
and is about half a mile in breadth. The other, situated 
to the south, is separated by a narrow pass from that 
described. It, too, extends about a mile from north to 
south ; but in other respects is very irregular, consisting 
of several vast heaps, quite disconnected. Much of 
this is granite in place, while gigantic boulders are 
piled up like pebble stones at its sides and on its sum- 
mit. These piles are from one hundred to one hundred 
and fifty feet in height. 
