ch obtuse angle you sit on! When in the saddle
you feel possibly like Mazeppa did on the wild horse, safe not to
fall off, but very uncomfortable and helpless. The stirrups--but no,
never mind them or any other part of the saddle, the whole affair
seemed to me ingeniously constructed for the purposes of torture, and
when I returned in the evening, I had not lost "leather," in the way
it is understood in England, I was simply raw, not only on the part
over the obtuse angle aforesaid, but for many inches higher, before
and behind, owing to the lasso pin and cantle described. It was some
weeks after ere I could sit down comfortably. My son was more or less
used to these ingenious Mexican torturing machines, and declared that
I too would by use arrive at the same state, but when I _did_ succeed
in dismounting that night (a difficult gymnastic feat at any time,
sore as I was, a very trying operation), I vowed never to trust
myself to a Mexican saddle again, and never did!

The ranch, as I expected, disappointed us. It was large, above 1000
acres, an undulating valley bordered by high mountains. But grass, as
we understand the word, there was none. Still the land was not bare.
There was a scanty vegetation on it, and here and there much wild
oats, which is, I believe, good food for cattle. I do not doubt
cattle could be raised there, and that they would thrive more or
less. It was well watered by two running streams. But, in both my
son's and my opinion, the vegetation was far too scanty, and the
price asked for it, above 2_l._ per acre, was, I thought, much above
its value, and I don't believe the owners will ever get anything like
that figure. I declined in any case to become the purchaser.

There was a very decent hotel at San Obespo, where we slept that
night. There is one thing common in rooms in America which it would
be well to introduce in England. Above all the doors are glass
window-frames, working on a centre pivot, so that they can be either
opened or shut. When open into the passage, staircase, or hall, you
thus obtain fresh air, and being high up near the ceiling, the
privacy of the room is not endangered thereby, while its altitude
prevents draught. Thus in a bedroom, when the weather is too cold to
sleep with the outer window open, this inner one supplies fresh air.
The ventilation thus secured is utterly wanting in English rooms. You
can't have a bedroom door open, and if the outer window is shut the
same a