d-house, as there were port-holes in
the walls which were four feet in thickness. This building, like the
others we had seen, was made of hewn stone, smoothly cut and fitted
together without any cement. Indeed they needed none, for the thinnest
knife-blade could not have been inserted between them. To the north of
this guard-house we found a reservoir in the form of an ellipse, its
axis one hundred and fifty yards in length, its breadth at least one
hundred, and its depth about fifty feet, paved at the bottom, and built
up at the sides with hewn stone. At the northern side an aqueduct
entered it, and this we followed a long way, but not finding where it
terminated, and being too fatigued to pursue it farther, we
returned.[17] The width of this channel is about twelve feet, and ten in
depth, finished at the bottom and the sides like the reservoir.
Continuing our journey, we followed the road which led us a little
north of west. We often saw Indians entirely nude who fled from us, and
as we took the precaution of getting out of their vicinity as soon as
our horses could carry us, we were not molested by them. We saw nothing
further of interest, until we struck the desert through which the road
lay, and, for the first time, we found it difficult to follow, as the
desert was without vegetation, the dry sand covering the whole extent
for miles around, with an arid and even surface. We should, in all
probability, have lost ourselves in that trackless waste, had there not
been huge shapeless piles of stone at intervals, and we soon found that
on digging down near these, we came to the paved road, and that on
removing the sand from around one of these piles of stone, we came upon
unmistakable evidences that they had once formed a building in all
probability to refresh travellers while journeying over this barren
waste.

[17] Within a year past the aqueduct has been traced forty miles,
terminating at the banks of a beautiful stream, which now empties
its waters into the Pecos, the mouth of the aqueduct being
blocked up.

"Keeping in the track as near as possible, we came to the Colorado, and
crossing over on a raft we made for the purpose, we saw on the western
side, rising from the plain at a considerable distance, a curious
shaft, and we soon found that the road ran by it. It must have been six
or eight miles from the Colorado, for we rode two hours before coming
to it, and when we did our astonishmen