Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/336

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THE SACRAMENTO POSITION
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and approximately parallel with it, there was a broad water—course, now dry and sandy, known as the Arroyo Seco, which after crossing the El Paso highway continued in its easterly course about a mile and a half, turned then toward the south, and joined the river about a mile and a half below the foul Along the northern bank of the Arroyo lay a road, which extended on the eastern side of the highway to the junction of this

watercourse with the Sacramento, while on the western side, bending toward the south, it crossed that river three miles or so above the ford, passed the hacienda of El Torreón, penetrated a defile in the steep and rocky foothills thrust out here by the western cordillera, and rejoined the highway about six miles farther on toward Chihuahua. A triangular block of