y. He was also
surprised to find what a barren place the valley that had looked so
beautiful and desirable from the mountains really was. Its sandy soil
only supported a thick growth of sage brush, that yielded a strong
aromatic fragrance when bruised or broken, and which rendered the
running of the line peculiarly toilsome. It was a relief to reach the
great river of New Mexico, and find themselves in the more fertile
country immediately bordering on it. Here, too, they found numbers of
quaint Mexican towns, of which they passed one or more nearly every day.

These were full of interest to the young explorers. While looking at
their low flat-roofed houses, built of adobe, or great sun-dried bricks
of mud and straw, it was hard to realize that they were still in America
and traversing one of the territories of the United States. All their
surroundings were those of the far East, and the descriptions in the
Bible of life and scenes in Palestine applied perfectly to the valley of
the Rio Grande as they saw it. The people were dark-skinned, with
straight, black hair; and while the young children ran about nearly
naked, their elders wore loose, flowing garments, and, if not
barefooted, were shod with sandals of raw hide or plaited straw.

The square houses, with thick walls, broken only by occasional narrow
unglazed windows, were exactly like those of the Biblical pictures.
Inside, the floors were of hard-beaten clay, and there were neither
tables nor chairs, only earthen benches covered with sheep-skins or gay
striped blankets. Some of the finer houses enclosed open courts or
plazas, in which were trees and shrubs. The cooking was done in the open
air, or in round-topped earthen ovens, built outside the houses.

The women washed clothing on flat rocks at the edge of the streams, and
young girls carried all the water used for domestic purposes in tall
earthen jars borne gracefully on their heads. The beasts of burden were
donkeys, or "burros," as the Mexicans call them. Grain was threshed by
being laid on smooth earthen threshing-floors, in the open air, and
having horses, donkeys, cattle, and sheep driven over it for hours. Wine
was kept in skins or great earthen jars. The mountains and hills of the
country were covered with pines and cedars, its cultivated valleys with
vineyards and fruit orchards; while the raising of flocks and herds was
the leading industry of its inhabitants.

At this season of the year, though the