324 
NARROWS OF THE RIO GRANDE 
Book II. 
beautiful along the Rio Grande. We were in a grove 
of scattered old poplar trees, between which we could see 
the rugged forms of the Sierra de la Soledad rising above 
the valley. Our mules grazed here by the light of the 
moon, and, as usual, were well watched. But in spite of 
our care, one of them, in the morning, was found to have 
an arrow wound in his leg ; proving that an Indian must 
have crept very near us. 
In order to expedite arrangements at the custom-house 
on the Mexican frontier at El Paso, Mr. Mayer decided 
on riding on before our caravan, and I accompanied him. 
The distance was about twenty-five or thirty miles. There 
was nothing remarkable in the valley till we came to the 
spot where the river breaks through the narrow pass above 
El Paso ; but at this point the country becomes very inter- 
esting. The mountain chain on the east throws out a spur 
here, which is separated from the chief mass of the Soledad 
and the Organos by a deep saddle ; and this spur continues 
on the other side of the river in a northerly direction, 
though forming here only an isolated group. Between 
these higher mountains, the valley is filled with rocky and 
stony hills, through which the river has formed for itself a 
narrow bed. Sandstone rocks mark the entrance of this 
valley ; while lower down the substance of the hills 
may be called a granito-porphyry. Connected with these 
are metamorphic strata, which appear to have been origi- 
nally sandstone, in which shells are easily distinguished. 1 
At the base of the rapid stands a mill belonging to Mr. 
Hart, a North American officer engaged in the Mexican 
war, who, having married a Mexican lady of one of the first 
1 Mr. Bartlctt, in his ' Personal Nar- 
rative,' speaks of limestone. I have seen 
none. As my two journeys took place 
under circumstances which, precluded 
any delay for a scientific purpose, he 
may be right. 
