Chap. V. TRAVELLING COMPANIONS. 497 
The river makes its way through these rocks. Below this 
opening the valley widens again, and large poplars, willows, 
and walnut-trees, grow along the bank of the river, while 
the hills are covered with mezquite, holm-oaks, and 
juniper-trees. The mountains in this part are said to be 
rich in gold and silver, the working of which is only 
obstructed by the Indians. 
The following day we reached the Mission of Tumacacori, 
situated in the valley, and consisting of an imposing stone 
church, with other considerable buildings. Three Ger- 
mans and a Frenchman have settled here, and claimed to 
be the lawful owners of the Mission, and the property 
attached to it. The situation is very interesting: high 
mountains of columnar porphyry rise behind the buildings, 
in front of which runs the river, bordered with a shady 
thicket; the bottom of the valley stretches out on both 
sides, and the new-settled colonists have still the fruits of 
the old garden of the Mission. A second travelling 
companion, Mr. C, — a German likewise, and an edu- 
cated man, — left us here, and joined the inhabitants of 
Tumacacori. 
I have already spoken of the various appearance of 
the Mezquite or Algarobbia ; and I am here reminded in 
passing through a little wood of mezquite trees, to refer 
to this subject again. This remarkable plant appears in 
different forms on the coast of Texas, on the high plateau 
of the Pecos, on the Rio Grande, in the south of Chi- 
huahua, and lastly, here in Sonora, on the Gila and Colo- 
rado. In these latter places it is an elegant little tree, but 
its feathery foliage yields little shade. One evening we 
were driving through a wood of these trees, one-half of the 
sky was illumined by the full moon, and in the other a 
storm was coming up. The uncertain light shining through 
2 k 
