. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . outh 15° west to south 10° east. We travelled ten miles, and encampednear the river, where it flows through a range of volcanic mountains. Grama is still foundupon the hills. Bushes are mingled with the green grass that borders the stream. NumerousPitahaya* add to the picturesque effect of rugged hills, sprinkled with shrubs and green-barkedacacias. Another beautiful addition to the scenery appeared to-day; groves of tall and branch-ing
. Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean . outh 15° west to south 10° east. We travelled ten miles, and encampednear the river, where it flows through a range of volcanic mountains. Grama is still foundupon the hills. Bushes are mingled with the green grass that borders the stream. NumerousPitahaya* add to the picturesque effect of rugged hills, sprinkled with shrubs and green-barkedacacias. Another beautiful addition to the scenery appeared to-day; groves of tall and branch-ing Yucca, with shining leaves, radiating like a wide-spread fan. They are twenty or thirtyfeet high, with trunks from a foot and a half to two feet in diameter. The leaves grow uponthe extremities of the branches, and each year are folded back to give place to a new set. It isin this way that the trunks attain their great size. A semi-compact substance is formed bythe interlacing of the leaves, which, whea dry, makes pretty good fuel for a camp fire. The * Name by which the Cereus Giganteus is known among Mexicans and Indians on Rio Gila. r1 p tr1 CO is. 3) 3 RIO SANTA MARIA.—ROUTE FROM VAL DB CHINA. 103 descent to-day has averaged thirty-five feet per mile. The principal ohstacle encountered uponthe march was quicksand in crossing the stream. February 7.—Passing onward we threaded the valley of the river nearly south eight miles,to a point of a metamorphic range of mountains where the stream turned westward. Hereentered from the east a river, with a wide valley, in all respects equal to that we have followedfrom the mouth of Big Sandy. Looking east, the stream appeared hordered with a long lineof cotton-wood trees, and large thickets of mezquite covered the bottom-lands. It flows, doubt-less, from the western slope of the Black mountain, and may be the main stream of Bill Wil-liams fork. We call it Rio Santa Maria, a name which early Spanish map makers applied tothe whole r
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