65                       [71
We passed to-day the ruin^ of two more villages similar to those of yesterday. The foundation of the largest house seen yesterday was 60 by 20 feet; to-day, 40 by 30, About none did we find any vestiges of the mechanical arts, except the pottery; the stone forming the S"pposed foundation was round and unhewn, and some cedar logs were a/so found about the houses, much decayed, bearing no mark of an edged tool. Except these ruins,.of which not one stone remained upon another, no marks of human hands or foot-step have been visible for many days, until to-day we came upon a place where there had been an extensive fire. Following the course of this fire, as it bared the ground of the shrubbery, and exposed the soil, &c, to view, I found what was to us a very great vegetable curiosity, a cactus, 18 inches high, and 18 inches in its greatest diameter, containing 20 vertical volutes, armed with strong spines. When the traveller is parched with thirst, one of these split open, will give sufficient liquid to afford relief. Several of these cacti were found torn from the   earth,   and lying in the dry bed of a stream.'
These and the mezquite, prosopis odorata, and prosopis glandu-losa, now form the principal growth. Under the name mezquite, the voyageur comprises all the acacia and prosopis family.
Last night, about nine o'clock, I heard the yell of a wolf, resembling that of a four months old pup. In a few minutes there "was a noise like distant thunder. " Stampede! " shouted a fellow, and in an instant every man was amongst the mules. With one rush they had broken every rope; and this morning, when we started, one of our mules was missing, which gave us infinite annoyance. Our party is so economically provided that we could not afford to lose even a mule, and I left four men to look it up, who did not rejoin us till night.
A question arose involving a serious point of mountain law, which differs somewhat from prairie law. One of my party captured a beautiful dun colored mule, which was claimed by another party; the one claiming the prize for havingfirst seen the animal and then catching it with the lasso. The other pleaded ownership of the rope, used as a lasso, as his title.   It was settled to the satisfaction of the first.
The mule was one which Carson had left on his way out, and on being asked why he did not claim it, he said it was too young to lie useful in packing, and as we now had plenty of beef, it would not be required for food, and he did not care about it.
October 26.—Soon after leaving camp, the banks of the river be-' came gullied on each side by deep and impassable arroyos. This drove us insensibly to the mountains, until at length we found ourselves some thousand feet above the river, and it was not until we had made sixteen miles that we again descended to it. This distance occupied eight and a half hours of incessant toil to the men, and misery to our best mulfes. Some did not reach camp at all, and when the day dawned one or two, who had lost their way, were seen on the side of the mountain, within a few steps of a high precipice, from which it required some skill to extricate them. The Qen named this pass "the Devil's turnpike," and I see no reason to change it. The whole way was a succession of steep ascents and 5