I could not help admiring the agility as well as the valour of my
Mexican packers and muleteers on such occasions. They moved about as
sure-footed and quick as sailors on their ship, and always on the
alert. Whenever one of the poor beasts lost its foothold, the men
would instantly run after it, and as soon as some obstacle stopped
its downward career they would be by its side and relieve it of its
burden. Of course, sometimes the animal was badly bruised about the
head, and unable to carry a pack for a few days; but, _mira-bile
dictu!_ in the majority of cases it rose to its feet. Then, after
giving it a few moments' respite, the packers would strap the cargo
again on its back, unless they deemed it proper to take a part of
it upon themselves, so that the beast might more safely climb the
declivity. The men really seemed indefatigable. One of them once took
upon his head a large case of honey and carried it up the ridge on a
run. Strange as it may sound, on my first journey across the Sierra
Madre I did not lose one animal by such accidents.

Climbing, climbing, climbing, one massive cordon after another, at the
start through dense oak thickets, and over hills flattened and eroded
with countless deep, precipitous gashes seaming the rock in every
direction. Numerous springs oozed and trickled from the stratified
conglomerate along the edges, sides, and bottoms of the ravines. The
tops of some of these truncated knolls were quite swampy in the
depressions, and covered with a thin-stemmed feathery grass. Here and
there was a clump of scrub oaks; sparsely scattered about were small
pines. We found great numbers of _Opuntia Missouriensis_, called by
the Mexicans nopal; small mesquite shrubs, too, are seen everywhere,
while the resurrection plant covers great areas, like the heather
on the Scotch hills. Here are also found century plants, or agaves,