PUEBLO DE LA LAGUNA.—COAL BEDS. 
59 
Lieutenant Ives with the surveying party encamped. They had proceeded to Isleta; examined 
the proposed site for a bridge; crossed the heights; descended to the Puerco; and thence, by 
the way of Eio San Jose, arrived at their present camp. Mr. Campbell tells me that the ascent 
from Eio del Norte was obtained at a grade of about fifty feet to the mile, and the descent to 
Eio Puerco need not exceed thirty feet to the mile. Thence the valley of San Jose leads to this 
place. 
Opposite Lieutenant Ives’ camp is the point of a red sandstone bluff, one hundred and fifty 
feet high, upon the top of which are perched the dilapidated stone houses of Eancho Colorado. 
Several of our party climbed the cliff and examined the ruins. The houses, as Captain Simpson 
describes, had been converted to sheep-folds ; but how sheep could have clambered up the nearly 
perpendicular walls, appearing to be nowhere less than fifteen or twenty feet in height, none 
could understand. In one spot a pit like a grave had been cut into the rock, to the depth of 
several feet, but no remains could be discovered in it. 
It being Sunday , the surveyors were resting from their labors. Leaving them there, our little 
party ascended the valley, crossed the creek, and followed the road over a chain of hills about 
two hundred and fifty feet above the valley. A short distance north, the river was crowded into 
a canon; above which a little valley opened and revealed Laguna. As we approclied the town, 
the Germans of the party almost imagined themselves in “Fatherland.” The western sun 
shone upon the place through a haze, which softened the outlines and rendered the view strikingly 
similar to pictures of Dutch cities. The town stands upon a rocky eminence, rising from the 
river, and the crowded houses with terraced stories seemed actually piled upon one another. 
The river flows at its foot and irrigates below a well cultivated valley. This is one of the old 
Indian pueblos, probably but little changed from the condition in which it was found by the 
Spaniards in the sixteenth century. It is now said to contain one thousand persons. The in¬ 
habitants are reputed honest, sober, and to a certain degree industrious. Encamping near by, 
we visited by invitation the family of the Eev. Mr. Gorman, a missionary of the Baptist per¬ 
suasion, who has established himself among this singular peojfle. Ilis school for children is 
well attended. Adults also listen respectfully to his instructions. 
In the centre of the pueblo is a plaza, or sort of court, surrounded by houses facing inwards, 
and so closely built as to give admittance by two crooked alleys only. Here the Indians collect 
upon certain festivals which no Mexican is allowed to witness. Americans, however, are freely 
admitted; because, they say, facetiously perhaps, we are of the same race and people with them¬ 
selves. Here the ancient buffalo dance is performed, as well as superstitious rites regarding 
Montezuma. Near by stands the church, a venerable pile of building, partly in ruins, where 
services are occasionally performed by a Catholic priest. The interior of the main building is 
used as a cemetery. At a funeral, the body, wrapped in ordinary wearing apparel, is laid in a 
shallow grave; with bread and a vessel of water placed upon it. Heavy stones are then thrown 
on with such violence as often to crush the bones ; the object being, it is said, to drive out evil 
spirits. The space is so limited, that, in digging a new grave, it is an ordinary occurrence for 
a body previously interred to be turned up ; in which case it is taken out and thrown into a 
little enclosure adjoining the church, where there is now an immense pile of bones, skeletons, 
and carcasses. Our naturalist, for the cause of science, succeeded in abstracting a skull. From 
the top of the church, a view of the valley showed an opening far into the canon below, through 
which the river seemed to force its way. A short deep cut, therefore, through the hills over 
which we passed, would suffice to carry a railroad across, with very little change of grade. 
Coal and jet are found near. An excellent bed of the former crops out near Cebolleta, furnish¬ 
ing fuel for blacksmiths’ shops in the vicinity. There has long been a sort of tradition, among 
the Mexicans, of a burning mountain forty miles farther north. Captain Ker, late of the dra¬ 
goons, states that when he was upon an expedition in that vicinity, the guide conducted him to 
it. There he found deep fissures from which smoke was issuing, leading to the inference that 
it proceeded from a burning coal bed. 
