Chap. XIII. AGUA DELGADA — OJO DE AHUANCHA. 415 
The Lion's Spring — Ojo del Leon — was our next water- 
ing-place. This name also proved to be a correct one. 
The advance of our party drove a cuguar from his break- 
fast, — a freshly-killed stag, which was yet warm. Our 
people cooked it for their own meal. The water of this 
spring forms a clear and plentiful brook, flowing for about 
a mile between flat hills, after which it disappears. 
From hence we came to an abundant supply of water, 
called Agua Delgada. Bordered by rush and reed, a 
small stream flows through a succession of singular ponds, 
the clear but brackish waters of which are from twenty to 
thirty feet in depth, with precipitous sides in the bog, and 
contain numerous turtles. The valley on each side is 
covered with rich grass, intervening spaces occurring which 
exhibit efflorescences of glauber salt, common salt, soda, &c, 
and terminate in a reedy marsh ; the plain beyond being 
sterile. The road from the Presidio joins that from El 
Paso here. The spring of Ahuancha, an Indian name cor- 
rupted into Comanche spring, lies about fifteen miles to the 
north-east. A remarkably long flat mountain, extremely 
regular in its form, and evidently a remnant of a more 
elevated plateau, rises here above the low plain. At its 
base I found some fossils, apparently belonging to the 
Jurassic formation. In the plain, several strong springs, 
rising in a space of a few hundred feet, form a stream, in 
the deep and clear waters of which we caught a quantity of 
cat-fish. This stream probably ceases farther on in the 
steppe. 
Then follows the Ojo Escondido, or Hidden Well, a clear 
but brackish spring. It forms the Arroyo Escondido, or 
Hidden Brook, a sluggish streamlet covered with reeds and 
rushes. 
Hitherto we had found but little fresh grass on our road, 
