whom I had an introduction, but learned that he was up at his gold mine.  This Tucson is an ancient city, having been founded by the Jesuits in 1560 A.D.  It does a large business in exporting gold dust, wool, and hides.  I expect that these mountains of Arizona contain much value in minerals.  The Indians in this part of the country are the Apaches, and were described to me as the most treacherous of all the American Indians, that they are cowardly and will never fight in the open.  A gentleman who entered the train at Tucson gave me many instances of this.  In the evening we saw “cow-boys” round their fire camping out in the open, and also a camp of freighters resting on their journey across the desert.  The next morning early (December 19th) we arrived at El Paso, a most interesting Mexican town situate on the borders of Old Mexico, New Mexico and Texas, where I bought the skin of a Mexican tiger, and other things.

In travelling for some days in a train continuously one feels the need of exercise, and this I obtained by getting in and out of many of the railway stations and walking up and down.  Between San Francisco and New Orleans there are 322 stations, and I should suppose the number of stations on both the Northern and Southern routes I traversed would probably amount to nearly 700.

We are now commencing to cross the great plains of Texas.  At first the plains are desert, with mountains skirting our view; the scenery is less interesting than the Arizona desert, because there are no cacti.  This desert has probably been under salt water at some time.  The rocky hills appear to have a volcanic origin.  As we go on, we reach a poor kind of pasture, growing out of a scrubby kind of shrub, with some occasional cacti, many hills and mountains like barren rocks, with not a bird or an animal to be seen.  The weather has been warm since leaving Merced, but now, so far south as we are, it is hot on this December day.  I had read in the short telegrams given by American papers, that the winter was very severe in England, and I pictured often to myself, friends and clients in England muffled up amidst frost and snow, whilst I was revelling in glorious sunshine, so warm that no greatcoat could be worn.  Had I returned by the route I went (the Northern Prairies), I might have been delayed by snow drifts, but by this, the Southern route, there was no snow, but a continuous, cheerful, delightful sunshine, not too hot anywhere, but simply delightful.  I should certainly recommend anyone going from England to California in the winter season, to go by the Southern route.  Amongst the objects of interest, we notice in the distance a small herd of 14 wild antelope trotting along; cattle, coyote wolves, and, at many places, the well-picked bones of animals which had dropped dead, or, when weak, had been killed or eaten by carnivora or reptiles.  We saw large numbers of prairie dogs; they sit outside their holes like a squirrel, on their haunches, with