I could not help admiring the agility as well as the valour of my Mexican packers and muleteers on such occasions.  They moved about as sure-footed and quick as sailors on their ship, and always on the alert.  Whenever one of the poor beasts lost its foothold, the men would instantly run after it, and as soon as some obstacle stopped its downward career they would be by its side and relieve it of its burden.  Of course, sometimes the animal was badly bruised about the head, and unable to carry a pack for a few days; but, mira-bile dictu! in the majority of cases it rose to its feet.  Then, after giving it a few moments’ respite, the packers would strap the cargo again on its back, unless they deemed it proper to take a part of it upon themselves, so that the beast might more safely climb the declivity.  The men really seemed indefatigable.  One of them once took upon his head a large case of honey and carried it up the ridge on a run.  Strange as it may sound, on my first journey across the Sierra Madre I did not lose one animal by such accidents.

Climbing, climbing, climbing, one massive cordon after another, at the start through dense oak thickets, and over hills flattened and eroded with countless deep, precipitous gashes seaming the rock in every direction.  Numerous springs oozed and trickled from the stratified conglomerate along the edges, sides, and bottoms of the ravines.  The tops of some of these truncated knolls were quite swampy in the depressions, and covered with a thin-stemmed feathery grass.  Here and there was a clump of scrub oaks; sparsely scattered about were small pines.  We found great numbers of Opuntia Missouriensis, called by the Mexicans nopal; small mesquite shrubs, too, are seen everywhere, while the resurrection plant covers great areas, like the heather on the Scotch hills.  Here are also found century plants, or agaves, and many species of small ferns, such as the graceful maidenhair.  In the larger water-courses are poplars and maples, now presenting their most brilliant hues, and carrying the thoughts of the Americans back to their Northern homes.

Thus we advanced for about six miles and made camp, at an elevation of 6,300 feet, on some old trincheras, with a fine view over the vast country we had left below.  Large flocks of gray pigeons of remarkable size squatted on the pine trees nearby, and two specimens of the gigantic woodpecker we here observed for the first time.  Here, too, Mr. Robinette shot a new species of squirrel, Sciurus Apache.  It was large, of a pale grayish-yellow color varied with black, and having a long, full and bushy tail.