BLUFFS OF THE LLANO ESTACADO. 
23 
creek, where the stream has hollowed out a ravine. Of this portion of the route, Lieutenant 
Whipple observes, in his preliminary report, that it is an apparently boundless plain, without 
a shrub or tree as far as sight can penetrate. It is covered with a thick carpet of buffalo-grass, 
which is cropped by numerous herds of antelope and deer. 1 Captain Marcy, who crossed the 
Llano at this point, thus observes, in his report of 1849 : u When we were upon the high table¬ 
land, a view presented itself as boundless as the ocean. Not a tree, shrub, or any other object, 
either animate or inanimate, relieved the dreary monotony of the prospect; it was a vast illim¬ 
itable expanse of desert prairie—the dreaded Llano Estacado of New Mexico ; or, in other 
words, the great Zahara of North America.” 2 
A general sketch of the prominent physical features of the Llano has already been given. 
(See Chapter I.) The Antelope hills may be regarded as the commencement of this vast plain, 
although they are in fact but fragmentary outliers resulting from denudation. They are also, 
undoubtedly, much denuded on their tops as well as sides, and do not rise to the height of the bluff 
borders of the principal plateau. This main plateau is marked by a long line of bluffs—precip¬ 
itous escarpments—which front upon the valley of the Canadian, hemming it in on both sides with 
grand natural walls. The point at which these vertical banks were first ascended was between 
Camps 45 and 46 ; and, although this part of the Llano is only a projecting point or peninsula 
of the great plateau which extends north, so as to impinge upon the river, its borders were well 
defined and presented a bold front across the route, looking like a great wall or barrier in the 
dim light of early morning. The sketch was taken one hour before sunrise, and shows a re¬ 
markable regularity of the sun’s rays as they shot up behind the summit of the plain. The 
broken and denuded borders of the plateau are well shown, and the peculiar barren and tree¬ 
less surface cannot fail to attract notice. 
bluffs of the llano estacado, (one hour before swirise, Sept. 17.) 
This was not the eastern borders of the Llano; they were passed some time previously, the 
commencement of the main line of bluffs being nearly south of Camp 41, at the western limit 
of the area of whitish sandstones around the Antelope hills. After leaving Camp 41, the trail 
passed for a long distance upon the red-colored strata bearing gypsum, and lying between the 
Llano and the river. The bluffs of the Llano, however, appear to extend further west on the 
north side of the Canadian than on the south, unless we consider the Antelope hills as forming 
1 Report of Explorations for a Railway Route, &c., H. Doc. 129, p. 18. 
2 Marcy’s report of the route from Fort Smith to Santa F(5, p. 185. 
