El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-11

named Cow Heaven Surrounding
these peaks on all sides is an area of
lower hills and old terraces covered
with desert gravel and vegetation.
some of which are black-capped vol
canic hills; others are of dazzling
yellow sandstone: still others show
stripes of stratified vermilion and
chocolate colors.
Day after day we drifted through
this weird desert hemmed in by low
bluffs of dirty yellow soil. and seeing
few signs of human habitation. One
day we ran across three of four Mex
leans leisurely driving herd of stolen
cattle across the river into Mexico.
This is the chief occupation of the few
people who choose this wild regnio for
a habitation. little later we were
greeted at our camp on the Mexican
side by white man accompanied by
seven or eight Mexican. all fully arm
ed Ware recognized him as a motor
ious ex-convict known in Texas as
Greasy BILL Later upon my return
to Marathon. l learned from the ran
gers that he was the outlaw most
wanted in Texas. and that only the
year before he had murdered an old
man named Reed, who kept a store on
the Texas side.
We were now nearing the apex of the
Great Bend. The river had never been
correctly meandered, and we naturally
looked for the point where the stream
which we had followed so many miles
in the southwesterly direction should
turn toward the north. Five times we
came to the southern apex of the bends
in the stream. each time thinking we
had made the turn, before we finally
reached the most southern point in
our journey. Our general course then
changed from "A southwest to a north
west disection. which we were TO fol-
(ds0v' Tor many days.
Just after making the turn we en-
tered the first of the two canonS known
as the Little and the Big San Vicente
canons respectively. These cut through
long low sierra within the general
area of the Terlingo valley. Directly
through and across the front of the
sierra a vertical black line could be
seen marking the vast chasm through
which the stream makes its way. AS
we neared the entrance. the river pre-
scented the appearance of apparently
plunging into a seething hole without
visible outlet. This canon, like the
Grand Canon de Santa Helena. is cut
through limestone. but the strata are
tilted and bent into many picturesque
effects. The bends of the stream in its
depths are more numerous, and the
walsl are broken by the entrance of
many lateral canons presenting pin
nacled and terraced cream-colored
sides.
In this canon we saw Rocky Noun
tain sheep far above us upon an mac
cessilble ledge. Serafino took one
shot at him and he tumbled back in
majestic leap.
The passage of the San Vicente can
ons took only a few hours, and at
noon we found ourselves in the eastern
or TornMo extension of the Terlingo
Desert. near the ruins of the old Mex
lean Preside de San Vicente. These
ruins were seen in 1852 by the Mex
lean Boundary Survey. and We're ap-
parently as ancient and deserted then
as today. They consist of extensive
roofless walls of old adobe buildings
standing in an uninhabited region, up
on low mesa mile or two from the
river. The people of the Big Bend reg
ion have a tradition that in the days
of the Spanish regime they were the
site of a prison where convicts were
kept and worked in certain mythical
mines in the Chisos Mountains. They
are the ruins of an old Spanish from
tier military post.
The following morning We passed
another short canon. through a noun
tain region similar to that of San VII
cente, which was picturesque in every
village of Boquillas. where we encoun-
tered the first and only American civil
liZatiOn upon our expedition. .
At this point and for about fifty
miles down its course. the river is re-
inforced by remarkable series of hot
springs bursting out of the vertical ifs
sures. The first noted of these was in
the middle of the stream, and its pres
ence was made apparent by the beau
frr1 ill.
midst of the muddy current. Roughly
estimated, the volume of the stream is
doubled by streams of this character
as it passes through these mountain
gorges .-
Boquillas is a widely divided settle
ment that owes it's existence to a near
by silver mine in the adjacent noun
tains of Mexico. Upon the American
side there are a store a custom house,
and postoffice. These are connected
with the Mexican side of the river by
great wire cable carrier a quarter of
a mile long, terminating in Mexico at
smelter where enterprising Amer
leans are reducing the ore found in a
vast pocket twelve miles away in the
Sierra del Carmen.
Two miles below the smelling works
is a densely crowded village of two
thousand Mexican inhabitants This.
lihe o.hei MeAicdh CoWhs dlohS the MO
Grande, presents none of the neatness
or artistic suggestion of tie villages of
other parts of Mexico. There is no
sign of stucco, whitewash, or of orna-
of other kind. Streets and
walls and interiors are all a contin-
uation of the dirty adobe soil of which
the houses are built, made no less re-
pulsive by the filthy pigs, burros
chickens, and other inhabitants which
seem to possess no separate apart
mentS. 1t is rumored that the ore is |