Chap. VI. PLANTS. 277 
CHAPTEE YI. 
Continuation — Country between the Arkansas and the Cimarron — Plants 
and Zones of Vegetation in Miniature — Water for Drinking and Washing 
— Wild-ducks — A Fugitive Murderer visits our Camp — Deserters from 
the Western Forts — Nature of the Soil — The Tarantula — Effects of 
Refraction — Valley of the Cimarron — The River — Electric Phenomena 
— Thunderstorm — Herds of Antelopes — The Bed of the Cimarron sud- 
denly filled with Water — Passage of the River — Aspect of the Country 
■ — Juniper-bushes — Distant Mountains — Curiosity of the Antelopes — 
The Rabbit's Ears — Fissure in the Lava — The Round Mound — Spurs of 
the Raton Mountains — Cienagas and Water-fowl — The Canadian — The 
Canon of the Ocate — Waggon Mounds — Salt Lake — Forests — La Mora 
— Settlements, and Agriculture — A Projected Town — A Day of Rest for 
Cattle and Men — Watershed between the Mississippi and the Rio Grande. 
Our road now continued in a W.S.W. direction, rising 
gradually from the river over loose sand, which ren- 
dered the journey very fatiguing. The country around 
presented a desolate aspect, with here and there only a 
tuft of grass rising from the sand, a cactus, or a sun^ 
flower. We gradually approached a layer of firmer 
ground, a sandy clay, forming a level plateau, and growing 
a short turf of buffalo-grass. Now and then the latter is 
broken by a barren spot, or by a group of large-leaved As- 
clepise, white Euphorbise, grey Artemisae, white-blossomed 
Asters, or by one of the innumerable yellow-flowering plants 
of the family of Compositce. Most of these plants occur 
in groups of the same species, according to the peculiarity 
of the soil on which they grow. There are circular depres- 
sions in the ground, which are at times filled with water, 
the bottom being coated with stiff clay. These depressions 
are very flat, the water in the middle being rarely two feet 
deep. All round their edge the ground rises a few feet, 
