22 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
Between camp 51 and station 2 there is a water-course. To the right of station 2 the bluff 
edge of the high mesa is five miles distant. It is rocky, and, as elsewhere, covered with fir 
trees. At station 4 the bluffs upon the left are hut sixty yards distant. From stations 4 to 6 
the prairie extends two miles to the right of the trail ; and after passing the summit which 
separates the waters of the Canadian from those of Rio Pecos, it slopes gently towards the left 
two and a half miles. There is a large pool of water between stations 13 and 14. The prairie 
extends three miles upon the left and two and a half miles on the right of the trail. Camp 52 is 
upon the bank of Hurrah creek, four miles above its junction with the Gallinas. It is a clear 
and rapid stream, destitute of wood. 
From Camp 52, on Hurrah creek, to Camp 53, at Las Chupainas, is a high broken prairie, 
intersected by many ravines. Near station 3 is a ravine the bed of which is 20 feet wide. 
From station 3 to 4 the ascent is steep ; beyond there is a wide plain. Between stations 8 and 
9 is a stream, with pools of water. Station 15 is in the water of Rio Gallinas, which contains 
neither wood nor soil fit for cultivation. There is a stream of water between stations 18 and 
19, and another at Camp 53, the water of which proceeds from the springs of Las Chupainas, 
and is slightly brackish. There is fuel, hut no good timber, upon the slopes of the mesas back 
of camp. Large forests exist some miles distant towards the Santa Fe mountains. 
North of Camp 53 is Man-of-War mountain, a high, mesa-capped peak in a range of new-red 
sandstone hills that extends towards the northwest and hounds the Pecos valley. The sides are 
steep, rocky, and covered with cedars. A secondary spur, of nearly the same altitude as the 
general surface of the high prairies, extends from this place to the Pecos river above Anton 
Chico. From Camp 53 to station 1 the trail crosses the wide and fertile basin which is watered 
by springs from the bluffs. There are pools of water near station 2. Thence to station 8, in 
the Pecos valley, the descent is by a long and regular slope. The river is crossed between 
stations 8 and 9, its stream being about fifty feet wide and two and a half feet deep and the 
bed rocky. Station 9 is at Camp 54, upon the west side of the Pecos valley, a few hundred 
yards from the river. The village of Anton Chico is about three-fourths of a mile above, over¬ 
looking the river and a wide extent of cultivated valley. 
