220 
EL PASO 
to water. This spring forms a pool, some fifty feet 
across, surrounded by rushes. The water is a little 
brackish, but the grass in the vicinity is excellent. 
Ascended a hill on the south, which was strewn with 
fragments of chalcedony, of which some fine specimens 
were collected. From this hill the Organ Mountains 
were plainly seen, bearing a little south of east. 
After waiting an hour to let the mules have the 
benefit of the grass, we hitched up and passed through 
the canon or mountain defile, in a south-westerly direc- 
tion, for three miles. This pass was quite hilly and 
stony, with some steep ravines to cross, but otherwise 
attended with no difficulties for wagons. After passing 
these mountains, our course was north-west for eight 
miles, when we reached the summit of a high table-land 
that lay before us. Here a wide view opened. The 
east was bounded by the long range of mountains 
which we had followed on the opposite side and crossed 
in the morning, while on the west, the broad undula- 
ting prairie was only here and there interrupted by 
low conical-shaped hills. At the south and south-west, 
detached mountains appeared abruptly springing from 
the plain, with jagged and picturesque summits, some 
of which must have been fifteen hundred feet in height. 
In the clear blue atmosphere of this elevated plateau, 
every object appeared with great distinctness, so that 
mountains could be seen at a distance of more than a 
hundred miles. ^ 
From the plateau we were traversing, we could 
discern, far in the distance, a streak of dark green, 
resembling a huge serpent. Far as the eye could 
reach, this dark streak wound its way, now expanding 
