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

50 THE RIO GRANDE IS RATHER CROOKED.
have not availed themselves of the facilities which even that
affords. The river, as it meanders through the tierrc caliente, offers but few beauties to the eye of the traveler. Nothing is hazarded in asserting that it is the most crooked stream
on the continent, since it far surpasses the Mississippi in the
number and magnitude of its curves. For hundreds of miles,
its yellow waves, pent in by muddy banks, roll through a
lonely champaign country, undiversified by majestic cliffs or
shadowy woods. Like a great serpent which has lost its
brilliant and varying hue, it fails to charm. If it were but
straight, its homeliness would be complete. So far as I could
hear or observe, it has not a single tributary between its
mouth and the Rio San Juan; a fact suggestive of arid
wastes, which the mind, touched by remembrance, did not
fail to contrast with the many bubbling brooks and enchanting groves that beautify and refresh the Atlantic slope of the
United States. As there are no forests on its banks, there
are of course no snags or sawyers to excite the fears of the
voyager; and its navigation is far more tedious than hazardous. The country, however, is well clothed with chaparrcd;
and groves of the more lofty mnesqueet are abundant in the
valley. The former, as the reader is perhaps aware, is a low
evergreen thorn; the latter, a tree resembling the peach
somewhat in appearance, and of not much larger growth.
The valley of the Rio Grande abounds in fine, nutritious
grass, which, after the wet season, dries upon the stalk, and
becomes excellent hay. It is but sparsedly populated, yet
these plains, interspersed with clumps of mesqueet, gave to
many places the appearance of high cultivation, when viewed