126 SAN DIEGO TO 
and otherwise assisting about the camp. They seemed 
amply repaid with a few old clothes, or any tragments 
of food that remained from our tables. Our culinary 
department was always the great point of attraction 
to these poor creatures, who would often form a double 
circle around the camp-fires, much to the annoyance 
of the cook. ‘The weather was excessively hot to-day, 
the mercury standing at 105° Fahrenheit in the shade 
under the bushes. 
Took our departure, at 6 p. m. Each mile we 
advanced, grew more barren. The road continued 
through deep sand or loose gravel, reminding us that 
we had fairly entered upon the desert of which we had 
heard so much. On leaving this valley, all traces of 
grass disappear. A few stunted shrubs armed with 
thorns, strove hard for an existence; and the wonder 
is, that any vegetable life can flourish amid such bar- 
renness. But the cacti and agave seem to delight in 
such arid and desert regions, as though the intense 
heat and dry atmosphere were the vivifying influences 
that nourish them. The bleached bones and dried 
carcasses of oxen, mules, and sheep, began to mark our 
road, mementos of the sufferings of former parties. The 
moon still shone bright, while we journeyed slowly 
on through the heavy sand for twenty miles, till, at one 
o'clock in the morning, we arrived at Carrizo Creek. 
I had got considerably in advance of the wagons, and 
without waiting for them or my tent, stretched myself 
on the bare earth (for it was so warm that a covering 
was unnecessary ), and was soon lost in sleep. 
June 4th. Carrizo Creek* is one of those remark- 
* Carrizo, means reed grass (Arundo phragmites). 
