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

136 THE SIERRA MADRE.
The mountain scenery of Northern Mexico is singularly
striking and grand. The Sierra Madcre chain differs from all
that I have seen, in the abruptness with which it rises, like a
vast wall, from the bosom of the plain. And a most suitable boundary it is, for the wide and wild expanse that lies
between it and the coast. The great Appalachian range of
the United States, having its feet buried in numberless broad
and high-rolling hills, does not so fill the eye or the heart.
Unlike our mountains, too, the Sierra nMadre wears no forest
drapery around its majestic form; a few pines and cedars
alone fringing its summit, or crowning the pinnacle of some
jutting crag. Yet the rough, weather-stained rocks upon its
sides, deeply set in moss, and half overgrown with shrubs,
vines, and the bright-flowering cacti, make it a beautiful
object, and one which the lover of scenery will ever "clasp
firmly in the mind's embrace." I have gazed upon it at all
hours and seasons, and always with increased delight. View
it when you will —and'tis ever attracting the mutsing eyeeither when night melts into morn, and the growing light
disrobes it of the cloudy garment it sometimes wears; when
glowing at midday in the soft light of serenest skies; when
twilight lingers o'er its craggy sides,' beautiful as dreams of
heaven;' or when the silvery moon, at evening bright,
walks o'er its dewy crest; it is always grand and enchanting.
Even now, it rises before the mental -vision, its towering
peaks and richly tinted slopes looming through the mellow
haze of that entrancing climate like a shadowy specter, called
up by some magician's incantations.
At San Francisco, after taking a hearty supper, composed,