We stopped here till about 3 P.M., and then continued our journey southward. As the banks of the stream were very steep here, we were delayed a little till we had all our baggage across, but then rode for two hours without a halt through the glorious shade of the forest, in whose gloom only now and then a bright yellow patch was lit up by the inquisitive sunbeams. We felt here as much at home as on the Leone or the Mustang, and the conversation throughout the whole day turned upon home and our friends there, for nature all around offered pictures of those regions. The trunks of the trees here rose again side by side; from their lofty branches llianas covered with gayest hues swung across, and under the evergreen bushes the flowers displayed their brightest colours. The parrots with their lustrous plumages hung high above us on the branches head downward, and innumerable bright red cardinals flew like live coals through the dark foliage. Here a proud stag with mighty antlers peered out from a cozy glade, and there a timid antelope fled with its two fawns behind it through the thicket. When we rode through the last clumps and reached the prairie on the other side of the wood, the sunbeams were falling on it obliquely, and we did not miss the delightful shade so much as we should have done had we exposed ourselves to the sun a few hours earlier. We rode sharply, and at about 9 P.M. unsaddled at the foot of the San Saba Mountains, and camped on a torrent that ran down thence to the Puerco.