Chap. XII. AND NATURAL FLO WEE- GARDEN. 403 
sional hills apparently 100 feet in height. The pedestrian 
sinks almost up to his knees in the sand, and, where the 
ground rises, slips back almost as much as he advances. 
The shouts of the drivers, the cracking of their whips, the 
deplorable cries of the mules, the night, the cold, the weari- 
ness, —all combined to make it a dismal scene. The next 
morning,, by daybreak, we arrived thoroughly exhausted 
at the so-named Mezquite Alto, a tree which marks the 
limit of the Sandhills. Here, in the warmth-imparting rays 
of the morning sun, we sank down upon the sand into deep 
sleep. Our mules were afterwards driven back to Sama- 
layuca to be watered. 
I have but one more characteristic locality and scene to 
describe, on our long journey back to Chihuahua. 
The road continues from the southern limit of the Sand- 
hills, over the elevated plain, between the Sierra del Can- 
delario and the Sierra de la Rancheria, and from which 
the view is remarkable. Yucca trees, with their gigantic 
lily-bearing stems, rose from the hard ground, covered with 
sharp fragments of porphyry, jaspar, and limestone, while 
the horizon was studded with mountain groups of every 
possible shape — horns, combs, peaks, and pinnacles. The 
scene was like magic, as if awakened out of some former 
age to the present time, — a flower-garden, in short, for a race 
of giants. 
