2 
CAVE AND CLIFF DWELLERS. 
through little known countries. Then, 
again, the writer is likely to consider him¬ 
self called upon to give a lengthy descrip¬ 
tion of the party in the preliminary letter, 
and, as I have often seen, even descend 
to an enumeration of the qualities of the 
cook or the color of the mules. The 
next night the cook may desert and the 
mules may run away, so that others must 
be procured, and therefore they are of no 
more interest to the reader than any other 
of the millions of cooks or mules that 
would make any writer wealthy if he 
could find a publisher who would' print 
his description of them. I intend to 
break away from that stereotyped for¬ 
mula in this first chapter and briefly state 
that I was in the field of Northern Mex¬ 
ico, hoping to obtain new and interesting 
matter beyond the everlasting descrip- 
