342 TOWN OF CHIHUAHUA. Book II. 
CHAPTEE X. 
Sojourn at Chihuahua — Situation, Name, ancient Splendour, and present 
Decay of the Town — Silver Scoria as a Building Material — Aqueduct — 
Climate and Physiological Influences — Insecurity of the Country — His- 
tory of the later Indian Fights in North Mexico — Examples of Mexican 
Bravery — Government Measures — Excursions — Cerro Grande — Bough- 
riding and Mexican Horses — Hunting Party — Santa Eulalia and its 
Silver Mines. 
The town of Chihuahua — which, from November 1852, 
till May 1853, was, with few interruptions, my abode — is 
situated upon a plain surrounded by bare and rocky moun- 
tains. Dr. Wislizenus has determined its level above the 
sea at 4640 feet, about 800 or 900 feet higher than the 
level of the valley of the Rio Grande at El Paso. In 
spite of the bleak aspect of the mountains, this region 
possesses much beauty, not only in the generally grand 
character of its scenery, but in many of its more peculiar 
forms and features. Two small mountain-streams, near 
one of which the town is situated, unite at the distance of 
about half a mile, and form a small river which falls into 
the Rio Conchos, or, according to another report, dis- 
appears before reaching it. One of these small streams 
rises in the mountains of Sacramento and Torreon, which 
lie to the south-west of the Laguna of Encinillas ; the 
other in the rocky defiles of the mountain group to the 
south-west of the town. United, they flow through a 
narrow pass between the mountains which bound the plain 
to the east ; and then irrigate the cornfields in the plain of 
Tavalope, on the other side of this mountain chain. The 
spot where they unite is called La Junta. A mill with 
