CIENEGA.-PENA BLANCA. 
45 
encamp. The day and night have been beautifully clear. The thermometer read at sunrise, 
34°; at sunset, 54° Fahrenheit. Excellent melons and grapes are found here, said to have 
been brought from Rio Abajo. 
October 3.—Leaving the basin, we ascended a ridge that overlooked a singular spot. Occupy¬ 
ing the oval-shaped crater of another volcano was a village, in the centre of which were two 
lava cones sixty feet high, one of them surmounted with a stone tower, as a detence, we were 
told, against Comanehes. The well-cultivated fields were surrounded by hedges, and watered 
by numerous springs. Adobe houses, strung, as usual, with chains of red peppers, were scat¬ 
tered among them, and gaily-clad Mexican rancheros could be seen sunning themselves in front. 
We descended a rocky declivity, and entered Cienega, or Cieneguilla, as it sometimes is called. 
Winding circuitously among the irrigated fields belonging to the ranchos, we then crossed a deep 
arroyo to the wagon trail, called by the villagers, as we thought improperly, “ Camino Real.” 
Along the banks of the arroyo were cultivated fields, a number of houses, and a church. At 
the end of three miles two branches came in, and the cliffs, three hundred feet in height, 
approached and confined us within a canon. Pursuing a general southwest course three miles 
farther, upon the sides of the ravine we found trap, lava, and scoriae, and upon the smooth 
faces of broken rocks were carved numerous hieroglyphics representing the sun, animals, foot¬ 
prints, &c. We also met with several new species of plants. At length we emerged into the 
open country we had not intended to leave, which stretches to the base of the Gold mountains, 
and is watered by Rio Galisteo on its passage to the del Norte. Cliffs at the terminus of the 
gorge were composed of coarse white sandstone, worn into the most perfect representation of a 
colonnade. Leaving the canon, we had a level country to the valley of the Rio del Norte, 
Entrance of Santa Ee river to the valley of Rio Grande, near P,fia Blanca. 
which we entered at Pena Blanca. Passing this town, we descended the valley about four 
miles to the crossing of the Rio Galisteo, three quarters of a mile above its mouth. According 
