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within half an hour, before the whole column had passed over, it was scarcely fordable.
Some fine specimens of trap dike are discoverable just after crossing the Rio Galisteo- one of them resembling, as nearly as may be, an artificial wall; another, the dark-colored remains of an old pueblo. About six miles further, we crossed the small affluent of the Rio de Santa Fe, on which Delgado's rancho is situated. Travellers sometimes make this rancho a stopping-place for the night between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Sixteen miles more traversed, at half past three in the afternoon, much to the gratification of the whole party, we reached Santa Fe.
The road from Algadones to Santa Fe is generally very good, the only exception being a few short steep hills.
The face of the country to-day has presented, with some trifling exceptions along the Rio Grande, at Delgado's, and between Agua Fria and Santa Fe-one extended barren waste of uncultivable soil.
Santa Fe, September 26.-The artillery, under Major Kendrick, reached this place yesterday; the infantry, under Captain Sykes today.
Character of the soil from the eastern base of the Sierra de Tumecha to Chelly, and thence to Santa Fe, by the return route.It may be thought, from the frequent mention of good land along the route since we left the eastern base of the Tumecha mountains, on our return trip, that fertility has characterized the country generally through which we have passed since that period. But, lest so erroneous an impression may obtain, I think it proper to observe that, for the greater portion of this distance, the road has threaded the valleys of the country, and therefore the land has presented itself such as I have described it. The country, it is true, has exhibited a greater extent of cultivable soil than hat traversed between Santa Fe and the Tumecha mountains, but yet, in comparison with the whole area of surface, it should still be considered as but a very small fractional part.
The idea I pertinaciously adhered to when in the States, before ever having seen this country, was, that, besides partaking of the bold characteristics of the primary formations, rocks confusedly piled upon rocks, deep glens, an occasional cascade, green fertile valleys-the usual accompaniments of such characteristics with us in the States-it was also, like the country of the States, generally fertile, and covered with verdure. But never did I have, nor do I believe anybody can have, a full appreciation of the almost universal barrenness which pervades this country, until they cone out, as I did, to "search the land," and behold with their own eyes its general nakedness. The primary mountains present none of that wild, rocky, diversified, pleasing aspect which they do in the United States, but, on the contrary, are usually of a rounded form, covered by a dull, lifeless-colored soil, and generally destitute of any other sylva than pine and cedar, most frequently of a sparse and dwarfish character. The sedimentary rocks, which, contrary to my preconceived notions, are the prevalent formations of the country, have a crude, half made-tip appearance, sometimes of a dull buff color, sometimes white, sometimes red, and some "
See ante, thirteenth camp, August 31, for general character of the country traversed east of the Sierra de Tumecha.