ht, for I saw his mother at Algodones and promised her
to rescue him or become a prisoner with him."

"So she wrote me at Los Pinos," I replied. "Well, something may turn
up to enable us to serve his mother. Let us go to bed."

Next morning we were again on the road by starlight. A march of
sixteen miles brought us to Agua Fria--cold water. Less than a hundred
yards west of the spring was a ridge which did not rise fifty feet
above it, and that was the "backbone" of the continent. The water of
Agua Fria flowed into the Atlantic; the springs on the other side of
the ridge flowed into the Pacific.

The wagons of the Arnold family travelled between the rear-guard and
the government wagons. They consisted of two large "prairie
schooners," drawn by three pairs of oxen each, a lighter wagon, drawn
by four horses, beside which four cows, two ponies, and four dogs were
usually grouped. The father and eldest daughter drove the ox-teams,
the mother the horse-team, and two daughters rode the ponies. Brenda's
pony, Gypsy, was her own property, purchased soon after she joined
her uncle in Colorado. As my station and Frank's were with the
rear-guard, or along the flanks of the train, Miss Brenda commonly
rode with us after daylight. Henry, after leaving Fort Wingate, rode
with the advance.

After supper at Agua Fria, Corporal Frank ordered all water-kegs to be
filled, for the water at El Morro, or Inscription Rock, our next
camping-place, was poor. The distance was seventeen and a half miles.
The next march was to the junction of the Rio Pescado and Otter Creek,
twenty-two miles, and the following to Arch Spring, nineteen miles.
This way took us through the ancient town of Zuni, an Indian community
described by the Spanish priest, Father Marco de Niga, in 1559.

After leaving Zuni, a march of thirty-two miles brought us late in the
evening to a spring variously called by Mexicans, Indians, and
Americans, Ojo Rodondo, Wah-nuk-ai-tin-ai-z, and Jacob's Well. It is a
funnel-shaped hole in a level plain, six hundred feet in diameter at
the top, and one hundred and sixty feet deep.

At the bottom of the hole is a pool of brackish, green water, reached
by a spiral track around the wall. Our cooks first procured a supply
of water, and then the animals were driven down in detachments. They
waded, swam, and rolled in the water until it was defiled for human
use.

An hour after our arrival four Navajos appeared and were admitted to
an