him he lied, and even accuse him of being a Texan spy — threatening to try and execute him as such! Were this ever the reward of treason, how few would be TRAITORS!
CHAPTER XXX.
March down the Cimarone. Junction of the two divisions. Country between the de las Animas and the Cimarone. Perilous descent. Cañon of the Cimarone. Soil and prevailing rock. A fort. Grandeur and sublimity of scenery. Beauty of rocks. Cimarone of the pain. Fruits and game. Wide spread desolation. A dreary country. Summer on the Desert. Remarks. Encounter with Indians. Nature's nobleman. Wild horses and different modes of catching them. Failure of expected reinforcements. March into the enemy's country. Ancient engravings upon a rock. Boy in the wolf's den. A man lost. Forced march. Torment of thirst. Remarks. The lost found. Expulsion for cowardice, —its effect.
SOON after the incident related at the close of the preceding chapter, an express arrived from the Col. commandant, with dispatches ordering our division to join him at a small creek near the Pilot Buttes, or "Rabbit Ears," two noted landmarks situated some forty miles above the Santa Fe trail, and nearly equidistant between the Arkansas and Cimarone.
We accordingly took up our line of march and proceeded nearly due south for two days and a half, to the Cimarone; thence, down the valley of the latter, five days' travel to the Santa Fe trail, and thence, west-north west, one day and a half to the place of rendezvous, which we found without difficulty after a journey of one hundred and seventy miles.
Between the de las Animas and Cimarone, we crossed a long reach of arid prairie, slightly undulating and generally barren, with the exception of small fertile spots among the hills, here and there, clothed with rank grasses.
In some parts, the cacti so completely covered the ground that it was impossible to step, for miles in succession, without treading upon their sharp thorns; in others, the thick clusters of absinthe monopolized the vicinity of creeks, nearly to the exclusion of all dissimilar vegetation; and yet in others, though of more brief space, naked sterility refused foot t aught save gravel and stiff clay, or saline efflorescences.
The water of most of the streams was so highly impregnated with mineral salts, it was often unfit to drink. The creeks afforded very little timber, and frequently none at all.
The section immediately at the base of the high table lands to the right, exposed some beautiful spreads of fertile prairie, well watered and suitably timbered. The soil, as a whole, presented all the prominent characteristics of like portions of country previously described.
The prevailing rock was limestone and sandstone, with various conglomerates, and extensive beds of gypsum. I noticed some very large specimens
