In my plans for returning across the continent, the recollection of the hot days along the Gila, or on the Colorado desert, never present themselves to me as any serious inconvenience. The heat does not oppress animals any more than it does men. Our mail carriers, who regularly cross the desert, frequently complain of the blinding influence of the sun reflected in their eyes from the bright sands; I never heard any of them complain of unpleasant effects from the heat, and we have a number of men employed who have traversed this desert for several years past. In returning to San Antonio, through Arizona and Texas, I experienced the northers a number of times, having been delayed once by snow; but none of our party ever suffered anything more than the natural annoyances incidental to wet feet and damp blankets. I make here some few extracts from my journal about the cold I experienced on our route: _December 5._--At El Paso have had a week of cold weather, with an occasional strong north wind during the time. Ice formed in a pond 100 feet across in the rear of the house; ice also made in the acequias, but the river was barely skimmed over once very early in the morning. Only once in a great many years, in El Paso, has the ice been thick enough to put up a few tons in an ice house. _December 9._--The mail coach came into El Paso from Tucson, and the conductor reported a norther, accompanied by snow, in the Mimbres. It fell on them the same day we had a norther at El Paso, the 5th, as above; the snow melted as it fell, so that by making a longer morning drive than common he reached the shelter of the trees at the Mimbres; none of his mules were chilled by being exposed without blankets, after unharnessing. The same conductor reports a snow squall on the previous trip, without any detention in either case to the mail, and without the snow lying on the ground at all; it melted as it fell both times. A letter per this mail from our train going west reports the weather cold enough in the night to freeze water in the canteens, but no one suffering from cold by sleeping on the ground. During the day it was bright and warm, forming a pleasant contrast to the night. At El Paso, December 9, we received advices of the northern wagon road expedition having returned for the winter. I consulted Colonel Leach, superintendent of the El Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road as to his movements; he assured me he had no intention of going into winter quarters, but, on the contrary, should continue on the road through the winter months; in fact, he deemed them the best suited to his purposes of shortening and improving the road.