Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

122 ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.
or intimidated by our steady advance, he made no effort to
arrest our progress, and contented himself with destroying
property likely to fall into our hands. The road led us over
a succession of rough and bare hills, which, with the distressingly hot weather, and the length of our column, increased at Cerralvo by the addition of Quitman's brigade,
Webster's battery, and the supply train, rendered our progress tediously slow. The country, as far as iMalrin, presented
a more barren and desolate aspect, though better watered
than that previously passed. F'rom the summits of the
thorn and cactus-covered ridges over which we marched, the
covup d'c'i1 was dreary and forbidding in the extreme. Far
and near, whichever way we looked, the mountains, hills,
and plains were glowing with the scorching heat of summer,
a few narrow belts of green foliage showing where the streams
yet generously moistened the thirsty earth. The rancheros
were mean and scattered, and sometimes we did not see a
Mexican during the clay's march. On the borders of the
stream, we alone found their wretched habitations. The
intervening wastes appeared to belong to the banditti, judging from the many crosses erected on the wayside; evidences
that the land was guilty of many " an arch deed of piteous
massacre." The country is, for the most part, bare of trees.
This is its great and ever-prominelnt characteristic. The fig,
olive, orange, and lemon, flourish in some locations, but there
are no forests, and a few scattered palmettos alone show
their tufted heads above the surrounding masses of chaparral.
The traveler from the United States finds himself continually
looking around, but in vain, for the magnificent cgroves which