Chap. VII. THE UPPER PECOS. 293 
CHAPTEE VII. 
Continuation — Journey along the Edge of the Plateau on the Eastern Side of 
the Rio Grande — The Upper Pecos Valleys — Character of the Country — 
Breeding of Sheep — Caravan Law — Mexicans in Service of Anglo- 
American Masters — Anton Chico — Canon Blanco — Cold Nights — 
Singular Hospitality and Corresponding Reward — Plateau of Manzanas — 
Landscape Scenery — Ruins and Mountain -Pass of Cuarra — Larks, 
Magpies, and Daisies in New Mexico — Descent into the Valley — Steep 
Alluvial Terraces — Vegetation — '"Volcanic Hills in the Valley — View from 
the Summit — Tree Vegetation near the River — Water- fowl — La Joyita. 
The country on the Upper Pecos, which we had entered 
through the defile of Las Vegas, is a succession of wide 
and narrow clefts and valleys, between table-shaped sand- 
stone mountains which they encompass, and larger moun- 
tain plateaus, which these valleys intersect, from the strata 
of the Jurassic formation down to that of the new red 
sandstone. A thin forest of pines and juniper trees, with 
an underwood of dwarf oaks, spreads over hill and valley, 
here and there interrupted by pasture-land, whilst there is 
occasionally seen on the sandy or stony soil, amongst trees 
and bushes, a low Yucca, a small Opuntia arborescens, a 
white-flowering Aster, a delicate crimson Phlox, or some 
other plant flowering in that season. 
A considerable breeding of sheep is carried on in this 
part of New Mexico, as well as in other sections of 
the territory ; and we met, in these deserts, large flocks of 
sheep, under the care of shepherds, armed with bow and 
arrow. They are driven for the night into sheep-folds, 
to protect them against the wolves ; but whenever the 
Indians have an appetite for roast mutton, flocks and 
shepherds are pretty much at their mercy. We paid a 
