474 CROSSING THE RIO GRANDE. Book III. 
country, both commissioned to discover an advantageous 
line for a railroad to the Pacific. One, under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Park, sent by the Government of 
Washington, had begun their works at San Diego, on the 
coast of California ; and had progressed eastwards as far as 
the Rio Grande. The other expedition, under Colonel 
Gray, was in the service of a company of New York, and 
penetrated from El Paso westward. Not long before our 
arrival at Franklin this latter expedition had made a vain 
attempt to reach the little-known Laguna de Guzman, the 
upper end of which, as was afterwards discovered by a 
second more successful expedition, lies sixty-two miles south, 
50° west from El Paso, in the steppe. The first attempt 
nearly met with an unfortunate termination : the party 
wandered about in the steppe, unable to find the lake, and 
want of water forced them to return to the Rio Grande, 
leaving behind a waggon, and all the baggage in it. Several 
persons had gone mad from thirst, but they soon recovered. 
The day after our arrival, I saw these courageous men 
start afresh ; and a fortnight later a messenger brought to the 
United States Consul at El Paso the tidings that the expe- 
dition had found the lake. In this corps was a young 
German, Mr. Schuchart, from Hesse- Cassel, whom I 
afterwards met again in the south of California, where he 
had joined an expedition to explore and work some silver, 
gold, and copper mines on the river Gila, — a task still 
more dangerous than that of Colonel Gray. 
Before leaving the Rio Grande, I may remark that this 
year the poplars were in leaf at the end of March and the 
beginning of April ; that in the second week of April the 
algarobbiae were green ; and that in the third week the 
various species of acacia came into leaf, which form part 
of the underwood on the sandy banks of the river. The 
