size of the horses and the horsemen.

For a moment I was awe-struck like the rest. Only a moment. A sudden
memory flashed upon me. I thought of the Hartz Mountains and their
demons. I knew that the phenomenon before us could be no other; an
optical delusion; a creation of the mirage.

I raised my hand above my head. The foremost of the giants imitated the
motion.

I put spurs to my horse and galloped forward. So did he, as if to meet
me. After a few springs I had passed the refracting angle, and, like a
thought, the shadowy giants vanished into the air.

The men had ridden forward after me, and having also passed the angle of
refraction saw no more of the phantom host.

The city, too, had disappeared; but we could trace the outlines of many
a singular formation in the trap-rock strata that traversed the edge of
the valley.

The tall groves were no longer to be seen; but a low belt of green
willows, real willows, could be distinguished along the foot of the
mountain within the gap. Under their foliage there was something that
sparkled in the sun like sheets of silver. It was water! It was a
branch of the Prieto.

Our horses neighed at the sight; and, shortly after, we had alighted
upon its banks, and were kneeling before the sweet spirit of the stream.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

THE MOUNTAIN OF GOLD.

After so fatiguing a march, it was necessary to make a longer halt than
usual. We stayed by the arroyo all that day and the following night.
But the hunters longed to drink from the Prieto itself; and the next
morning we drew our pickets, and rode in the direction of that river.
By noon we were upon its banks.

A singular stream it was, running through a region of bleak, barren, and
desolate mountains. Through these the stream had forged its way by
numerous canons, and rushed along a channel at most places inaccessible.
It was a black and gloomy river. Where were its sands of gold?

After riding for some distance along its banks, we halted at a point
where its bed could be reached. The hunters, disregarding all else,
clambered eagerly over the steep bluffs, and descended to the water.
They hardly stayed to drink. They crawled through narrow interstices,
between detached masses of rock that had fallen from above. They lifted
the mud in their hands, and washed it in their cups; they hammered the
quartz rock with their tomahawks, and pounded it between great stones.
Not a particle of the preciou