es north from San Antonio de Bejar, the San Seba hills
rise and extend themselves in a line parallel with the Rocky Mountains,
as high as the green peaks in the neighbourhood of Santa Fe. The San
Seba hills contain several mines of silver, and I doubt not that this
metal is very common along the whole range east of the Rio Grande. Gold
is also found in great quantities in all the streams tributary to the
Rio Puerco, but I have never heard of precious stones of any kind.

Excepting the woody districts which border Louisiana and Arkansas, the
greater proportion of Texas is prairie; a belt of land commences upon
one of the bends of the river Brasos, spreads northward to the very
shores of the Red River, and is called by the Americans "The Cross
timbers;" its natural productions, together with those of the prairies,
are similar to those of the Shoshone country. Before the year 1836, and
I dare say even now, the great western prairies of Texas contained more
animals and a greater variety of species than any other part of the
world within the same number of square miles; and I believe that the
Sunderbunds in Bengal do not contain monsters more hideous and terrible
than are to be found in the eastern portion of Texas, over which nature
appears to have spread a malediction. The myriads of snakes of all
kinds, the unaccountable diversity of venomous reptiles, and even the
deadly tarantula spider or "vampire" of the prairies, are trifles
compared with the awful inhabitants of the eastern bogs, swamps, and
muddy rivers. The former are really dangerous only during two or three
months of the year, and, moreover, a considerable portion of the trails
are free from their presence, owing to the fires which break out in the
dry grass almost every fall. There the traveller knows what he has to
fear, and, independent of the instinct and knowledge of his horse, he
himself keeps an anxious look-out, watching the undulating motion of the
grass, and ever ready with his rifle or pistols in the event of his
being confronted with bears, pumas, or any other ferocious quadruped.
If he is attacked, he can fight, and only few accidents have ever
happened in these encounters, as these animals always wander alone, with
the exception of the wolf, from whom, however, there is but little to
fear, as, in the prairies, this animal is always glutted with food and
timid at the approach of man.

As the prairie wolf is entirely different from the European