The soil was sandy and covered more or less with sage brush, and the stream which had been strong and deep enough to make us very wet now sank entirely out of sight in the sandy bottom.

The hills were thinly timbered on the left side but quite brushy on the right, and we could see the track of cattle in the sand.

No signs of other animals, but some small birds came near, and meadow larks whistled their tune, quite familiar to us, but still sounding slightly different from the song of the same bird in the East.
High in the air could be seen a large sailing hawk or buzzard.
We stopped to rest at noon and noticed that the water ran a little in the creek bed; but, by the time we were ready to start we found none with which to fill our canteens.

No doubt this water was poured into the canon somewhere near the place where we killed the three cattle, and we had got out of it before the flood came down.

It was astonishing to see how the thirsty sand drank up the quite abundant flow.
The next day we came down to the point of hill that nearly crossed the valley, and we crossed the low ridge rather than make a longer trip to get around by way of the valley.