398 OJO DE LA LAGUNA. Book II. 
the men had been shot with arrows, which probably struck 
them before they perceived their danger. This was the 
revenge of the Indians for their defeat by the men of San 
Andreas, and the continuation of their murderous attack 
upon Sause. 
From this rancho, the route of the brigade diverged from 
the direct road, which I had already travelled, to Carrizal. 
Leaving this to the right, we turned towards the principal 
buildings of the Hacienda de Encinillas, containing an 
entire village, with a church, and continued our march on 
the west side of the lake, while the road runs on the east. 
From the 10th to the 1 1th we rested near a spring at the 
north-west limit of the lake, by the ruins of a deserted 
rancho. The spot is called Ojo de la Laguna — Spring 
near the Lake. We remained here half the next day, for 
we had 42 miles before us without water, and these had 
to be accomplished without stopping, through the night. I 
took advantage of the opportunity to examine the country. 
The chaparral in the neighbourhood of the camp was one 
of the characteristic plants of the North Mexican Steppes, 
but I had not hitherto seen it so prevalent and so vigorous. 
It is the tepopote — an Ephedra, whose stiff, green, leafless, 
broomlike twigs, like those of the Spartium junceum, grow 
half as tall as a man. Pretty spring flowers blossomed 
in other places, dwarf asclepias, Oenothera, gilia, &c. &c. 
The lower plain, on a level with the lake, is marshy, and 
its banks are covered with reeds, among which the ground 
is covered with soda. It is difficult to reach the water, 
as you sink in the ground among the reeds, but I managed 
to secure an avocet and some other water-birds, which I 
shot here. Ducks, divers, water-hens, strand-snipes, plovers, 
snipes, bitterns, herons, falcons, and ospreys, flew in such 
numbers around me, that I literally did not know in what 
