s
richly studded with mounds. On an excursion three or four miles down
Piedras Verdes River I saw several groups of mounds, some of which,
no doubt, contained many objects of antiquity. On top of one low hill
was a large group, and half a mile north of this another, 160 paces
long and containing two oblong mounds. Some of the mounds were ten
or twelve feet high.

A very trustworthy Mormon informed me that there were no ruins,
in caves or otherwise, along the river between this settlement and
Colonia Juarez; nor were there any, he said, for a hundred miles south
of Pacheco, though mounds could be seen in several places. Therefore
when I at last departed from Cave Valley, I took his advice and did
not follow the course of the Piedras Verdes River down to San Diego,
but led the pack train the safer, though longer, way over the regular
road. The country along the river was afterward explored by members of
my expedition. They came upon several small caves high up on the side
of the canon, some of which had once been inhabited, to judge from the
many potsherds and the smoky roofs; but no cave-houses were found until
higher up the river, where some were seen in the sandstone cliffs.

I broke camp in Cave Valley on March 11th, and arrived on the same
day at Old Juarez, a few miles from my camp at San Diego. Now the
weather was warm; the grass was sprouting, and I noticed a flock of
wild geese going northward.

The plains of San Diego used to swarm with antelopes, and even at
the time of my visit herds of them could be seen now and then. One
old hunter near Casas Grandes resorted to an ingenious device for
decoying them. He disguised himself as an antelope, by means of a
cloak of cotton cloth (manta) painted to resemble the colouring of
the animal. This covered his body, arms, and legs. On his head he
placed the antlers of a stag, and by creeping on all fours he could
approach the antelopes quite closely and thus successfully shoot
them. The Apaches, according to the Mexicans, were experts at hunting
antelopes in this manner.

We excavated a mound near Old Juarez and found in it a small basin of
black ware. There were twelve or fifteen other mounds, all containing
house groups. The largest among them was 100 feet long, fifty feet
wide, and ten feet high; others, while covering about the same space,
were only three or four to six feet high. They were surrounded,
in an irregular way, by numerous stone heaps, some quite small,