Tucumcari Mountain. — Cummina. 379 
reasons. A number of Comanches — the first we have met — have been • 
into camp and we have been assured by them that the hill which we 
have been regarding for the past three days is indeed Cerro de Tucum- 
cari. My calculations then have proved correct ; and when there has 
been so much to mislead — perpetrated doubtlessly unwittingly by those 
who have preceded us — in regard to the distance to Santa Fe, it is a 
gratification to find that the information I have given from time to time, 
in direct opposition to more flattering statements, has become corrobor- 
ated. 
"And again from my journal of the same day, in reference to my visit 
to the hill : 
"Finding that our road to-day was shunning the hill which we are 
now assured is the Cerro de Tucumcari of Gregg, when seven miles from 
our last camp I started for it in company with an escort of three dra- 
goons, to approach and ascend it. Startling on our way some eleven or 
twelve deer and half a dozen hares, and passing over a poor soil covered 
with the Mexican soap plant, we reached it after a two hours or eight 
miles ride. Telling one of the dragoons to time his horse around the 
base, and giving the charge of the others to the other dragoon, I took 
the third with me up the hill. After a most laborious ascent, of which 
some fifty feet were nearly vertical, we reached at last its summit. On 
every side was an unobstructed view. To the west and south lay a con- 
tused mass of irregular hills, with here and there a well defined conical 
one to characterize the scene. Far behind to the west lay a range of 
mountains or hills, and more conspicuous than the rest a high peak 
which I thought might possibly be a glimpse of the Rocky mountains. 
[It proved not, however, to be these mountains.] 
"To the south some eight miles distant, I could see with my recon- 
noitering glass the serrated tents of our little command, quietly repos- 
ing on a timbered affluent of the Canadian, to which they had resorted 
since I had left them. To the southeast and east lay the famous 'Llano 
Estacado' of the Mexicans. To the northeast and north lay a limitless 
extent of broken undulating prairie, no si^ns of the Canadian being ap- 
parent. Pacing the top of the mound I found it to be 230 yards by 370 
in area; and by a measurement of the slope of the hill, and roughly re- 
ducing it to an angle of 45 degrees, I made its hight to be over 700. The 
circumference of its base to our surprise I found to be nearly six miles, 
it having taken a horse two hours, less eight minutes, to walk around 
it. It was most refreshing to botti the dragoon and myself in [page 15] 
our descent, when we were almost ready to die with thirst, to find a cou- 
ple of small springs whence we drank copiously.' " 
It will be seen ver}- readily from these quotations that there was 
a well known route through the region at the time of Prof. Mar- 
«ou's visit and one of the buttes was known as the Cerro de Tu- 
cumcari. 
The description of this butte is given b}- Lieut. Simpson with 
