orth and south,--mountains,
mountains.

Westward, it is different. Through the telescope we can see cultivated
fields afar off,--a mere strip along the banks of a shining river.
Those are the settlements of Nuevo Mexico, an oasis irrigated by the Rio
del Norte. The scene of our story lies not there.

Face once more to the eastward, and you have it before you. The
mountain upon which we stand has its base upon a level plain that
expands far to the east. There are no foot-hills. The plain and the
mountain touch, and at a single step you pass from the naked turf of the
one to the rocky and pine-clad declivities of the other.

The aspect of the plain is varied. In some places it is green, where
the gramma-grass has formed a sward; but in most parts it is sterile as
the Sahara. Here it appears brown, where the sun-parched earth is bare;
there it is of a sandy, yellowish hue; and yonder the salt effervescence
renders it as white as the snow upon which we stand.

The scant vegetation clothes it not in a livery of verdure. The leaves
of the agave are mottled with scarlet, and the dull green of the cactus
is still further obscured by its thickly-set spines. The blades of the
yuccas are dimmed by dust, and resemble clusters of half-rusty bayonets;
and the low scrubby copses of acacia scarce offer a shade to the dusky
_agama_ and the ground rattlesnake. Here and there a solitary palmetto,
with branchless stem and tufted crown, gives an African aspect to the
scene. The eye soon tires of a landscape where every object appears
angular and thorny; and upon this plain, not only are the trees of that
character, but the plants,--even the _very_ grass carries its thorns!

With what sensations of pleasure we turn to gaze into a lovely valley,
trending eastward from the base of the mountain! What a contrast to the
arid plain! Its surface is covered with a carpet of bright green,
enamelled by flowers that gleam like many-coloured gems; while the
cotton-wood, the wild-china-tree, the live-oak, and the willow, mingle
their foliage in soft shady groves that seem to invite us. Let us
descend!

We have reached the plain, yet the valley is still far beneath us--a
thousand feet at the least--but, from a promontory of the bluff
projecting over it, we command a view of its entire surface to the
distance of many miles. It is a level like the plain above; and gazing
down upon it, one might fancy it a portion of the latter that had