Our road was very fatiguing, and we were frequently obliged to dismount and lead our horses down the steep slopes; at the same time the path was covered with small sharp stones, which rendered going down hill still more wearisome to the cattle, and it often ran over loose blocks of stone, where they ran a great risk of breaking their legs. Still all went well, and toward evening we rode out between the last hills into the fresh verdure of the Puerco valley, and camped on the stream whose course we had been following for some days, and which here ran as a small river to the Puerco. We preferred riding down the valley along the hills, in order to keep out of the way of the wandering Indians who generally marched up and down the river, and whose number was large, especially now, as all the tribes of the Comanches and their relatives were _en route_ for the great council at the sources of this river. Then, again, we could calculate on finding more game on this side of the extensive valley, and had only one disadvantage, that we must at times go without water. Nature everywhere showed us that we were approaching home: the prairie was again ornamented with the gorgeous flora which had so often delighted us there; the sky above us was darker, and, in the distance, more hazy than in the north, and a warmer life seemed to be stirring in everything. Still the vegetation, especially that of the woods, did not bear the peculiar southern character which is so striking at our home. We started very early, rode till far into the evening, and rested, when we could manage it, at noon in some shadow, for the heat was most oppressive from eleven till three. Moreover, we were in the moon's first quarter, which lighted us a little when the sunshine had departed, and enabled us to employ the cool of the evening on these smooth plains in pushing on.