Chap. IX. OJO DE LUCERO. 337 
Atlas. 1 In the evening we advanced over a level plain 
towards a mountain chain of perpendicular rocks, among 
which one, remarkably angular and defined in its form, the 
Cerro de Lucero, attracts attention. We continued our 
journey through a portion of the night, and encamped the 
next morning at Ojo de Lucero, a spring near the Laguna 
de los Patos. This is a lake on the left of the road. The 
plain is mostly covered with grass, but near the Cerro 
de Lucero tracts of clay or sand are covered with an 
efflorescence apparently of carbonate of soda. Our road, 
at least, took us over places of this nature ; and, from 
appearances, it seemed probable that, to the right of the 
road, they existed to a considerable extent. It was over this 
portion of the plain that we had seen, and now saw more 
closely, those columns of dust; their recurrence in the same 
locality may be accounted for by the nature of the soil. 
At no great distance from the Ojo de Lucero we met 
with another spring, Ojo del Coyote, remarkable as rising 
in the summit of a sandhill about 20 or 30 feet high. 
This curious circumstance is, however, easily explained, the 
sandhill being built up by the spring. It is entirely 
surrounded by the same kind of efflorescence. The 
Mexicans call this salt — which they collect for soap-boiling 
— " Tequesquite :" evidently an Aztec word. A few miles 
farther, at no great distance from the Laguna de los Patos, 
a warm spring rises in several eddies from the white sand. 
It forms a clear tepid brook, which flows into a piece of 
water surrounded by tall reeds, on the side of the road. 
This place was frequented by numbers of waterfowl — ducks, 
coots, and a large black web-footed bird, with very long 
1 Among the clever views of southern 
Abyssinia, in Bernaz's beautiful work, 
there is one which exactly represents 
what I saw, only from a greater dis- 
tance, in Sonora. 
