en looked
upon the chaotic mountains that walled it in, my mind became impressed
with ideas of coldness and desolation. It seemed as if everything was
dead around us, and Nature was laid out in her winding-sheet. I saw
that my companions experienced similar feelings, but no one spoke; and
we commenced riding down the pass that led into this singular valley.

As far as we could see, there was no prospect of water on the plain; but
what else could we do than cross it? On its most distant border, along
the base of the snowy mountains, we thought we could distinguish a black
line, like that of timber, and for this point we directed our march.

On reaching the plain, what had appeared like snow proved to be soda. A
deep incrustation of this lay upon the ground, enough to satisfy the
wants of the whole human race; yet there it lay, and no hand had ever
stooped to gather it.

Three or four rocky buttes were in our way, near the debouchure of the
pass. As we rounded them, getting farther out into the plain, a wide
gap began to unfold itself, opening through the mountains beyond.
Through this gap the sun's rays were streaming in, throwing a band of
yellow light across one end of the valley. In this the crystals of the
soda, stirred up by the breeze, appeared floating in myriads.

As we descended, I observed that objects began to assume a very
different aspect from what they had exhibited from above. As if by
enchantment, the cold snowy surface all at once disappeared. Green
fields lay before us, and tall trees sprang up, covered with a thick and
verdant frondage!

"Cotton-woods!" cried a hunter, as his eye rested on these still distant
groves.

"Tall saplins at that--wagh!" ejaculated another.

"Water thar, fellers, I reckin!" remarked a third.

"Yes, siree! Yer don't see such sprouts as them growin' out o' a dry
paraira. Look! Hollo!"

"By gollies, yonder's a house!"

"A house? One, two, three! A house? Thar's a whole town, if thar's a
single shanty. Gee! Jim, look yonder! Wagh!"

I was riding in front with Seguin, the rest of the band strung out
behind us. I had been for some time gazing upon the ground, in a sort
of abstraction, looking: at the snow-white efflorescence, and listening
to the crunching of my horse's hoofs through its icy incrustation.
These exclamatory phrases caused me to raise my eyes. The sight that
met them was one that made me rein up with a sudden jerk. Seguin had
done th