On the extreme verge of the horizon lie a long chain of mountain peaks, with their rugged summits flecked with snow.

In this great stretch of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything appertaining to life.
There is no bird in the steel-blue heaven, no movement upon the dull, grey earth--above all, there is absolute silence.

Listen as one may, there is no shadow of a sound in all that mighty wilderness; nothing but silence--complete and heart-subduing silence.
It has been said there is nothing appertaining to life upon the broad plain.

That is hardly true.

Looking down from the Sierra Blanco, one sees a pathway traced out across the desert, which winds away and is lost in the extreme distance.