SECTION III.
JOURNEY FROM CATORCE TO SOMBRERETE. MINES OF THAT DISTRICT.
On quitting the Cañada of Catorce (Dec. 4), we began to pass what we all termed the Desert, or, in other words, a plain, extending, without any other variety than the occasional undulations of the surface, from the mountains of Cătōrcĕ to those of Zăcătēcăs, a distance of about seventy leagues. The whole of this space is covered with a sort of mimosa, with very long thorns; another smaller shrub, the name of which I do not know, but which resembles the box in the shape and colour of its leaf; mezquites, and dwarf palms, bearing a fruit not unlike the real date in appearance, and by no means unpalatable. Water there is none, except in vast "tanques," or reservoirs, kept up at a considerable expence, as it is upon them that the proprietors rely for the preservation of the enormous flocks of sheep and goats which are bred upon their estates.
