e creosote plant. There was no living thing to be seen save the
brown and hideous lizard, the rattlesnake, and the desert crickets that
crawled in myriads along the parched ground, and were crunched under the
hoofs of our animals. "Water!" was the word that began to be uttered in
several languages.

"Water!" cried the choking trapper.

"L'eau!" ejaculated the Canadian.

"Agua! agua!" shouted the Mexican.

We were not twenty miles from the San Carlos before our gourd canteens
were as dry as a shingle. The dust of the plains and the hot atmosphere
had created unusual thirst, and we had soon emptied them.

We had started late in the afternoon. At sundown the mountains ahead of
us did not seem a single mile nearer. We travelled all night, and when
the sun rose again we were still a good distance from them. Such is the
illusory character of this elevated and crystal atmosphere.

The men mumbled as they talked. They held in their mouths leaden
bullets and pebbles of obsidian, which they chewed with a desperate
fierceness.

It was some time after sunrise when we arrived at the mountain foot. To
our consternation no water could be found!

The mountains were a range of dry rocks, so parched-like and barren that
even the creosote bush could not find nourishment along their sides.
They were as naked of vegetation as when the volcanic fires first heaved
them into the light.

Parties scattered in all directions, and went up the ravines; but after
a long while spent in fruitless wandering, we abandoned the search in
despair.

There was a pass that appeared to lead through the range; and entering
this, we rode forward in silence and with gloomy thoughts.

We soon debouched on the other side, when a scene of singular character
burst upon our view.

A plain lay before us, hemmed in on all sides by high mountains. On its
farther edge was the snowy ridge, with stupendous cliffs rising
vertically from the plain, towering thousands of feet in height. Dark
rocks seemed piled upon each other, higher and higher, until they became
buried under robes of the spotless snow.

But that which appeared most singular was the surface of the plain. It
was covered with a mantle of virgin whiteness, apparently of snow; and
yet the more elevated spot from which we viewed it was naked, with a hot
sun shining upon it. What we saw in the valley, then, could not be
snow.

As I gazed over the monotonous surface of this plain, and th