st and encouraging
us in our hopes that the fine weather would continue, although the
moon appeared hazy.

Having ascended the sierra, we made a picturesque camp on the top
of the cordon, in the midst of forests so dense that we did not get
any view of the landscape. While here, Mr. Stephen discovered, on
the summit of a peak, about four hundred and twenty feet above the
brow of the ridge, a small, circular structure about four feet in
diameter. Four or five large fragments of scoria, each about fifteen
inches high, were set around in a circle, and the space between them
was filled in with small fragments. No nicety was shown in the work,
but the arrangement of the stones was not accidental. It was, however,
quite old, for in several places the fragments were cemented together
with a thick coat of lichen. The purpose of the circle is a matter
of conjecture.

We were now obliged, as the guide did not seem to know any more
of the country, to explore ahead of us before the main body of the
expedition could proceed further. Several of us went out in different
directions, and I happened to strike the right course, which here
unexpectedly goes first northward. Accompanied by my dog "Apache,"
I walked in the fresh morning air through the sombre pine woods,
the tops of which basked in glorious sunshine, and along the high
cordon, which ran up to a height of 8,900 feet (the highest point
reached on my first expedition over the Sierra Madre), until I came
to a point where it suddenly terminated. But I soon ascertained that
a spur branching off to the east would lead us in the right direction.

I sat down to gaze upon the magnificent panorama of the central
part of the Sierra Madre spread out before me. To the north and
northeast were pine-covered plateaus and hills in seemingly infinite
successions; on the eastern horizon my eyes met the dark, massive
heights of Chuhuichupa, followed towards the south by ridge upon
ridge of true sierras with sharp, serrated crests, running mainly
from northwest to southeast. And between them and me was an expanse
of gloomy, pine-hidden cordons, one succeeding close upon another,
and running generally in the same direction as the sierras. Primeval
stillness and solitude reigned all over the woodland landscape. I
like the society of man, but how welcome and refreshing are occasional
moments of undisturbed communion with Nature!

On the following day the pack train moved along the path I had w