José — page 200: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JOSE. 193 ever and anon scanning the trail and again keenly inspecting his surroundings. The landscape steadily continued to assume a rocky aspect; frequently the trail wound round the base of large, towering sand- stone clifis, leaving it to their instinct rather than to their eyes to divine its direction, until the dis- covery of a trampled plant, protruding from a narrow cleft in the rock where it had taken root, reassured them. <A perpendicular precipice now in- terposed, at first sight hopelessly cutting off their advance, until a sandy depression at the side again discovered to their searching eyes the faint impress of feet. Three hours possibly had elapsed in this manner, and the sun was fast declining, when the trailers reached a second reservoir, imbedded in the rocky ground, whose edges, without a sign of vegetation were on all sides swarming with lizards. Here Bob suddenly arrested his steps. “T have gone in the direction of this water be- cause I believe,” he said, “thev passed here, for there are no longer any signs of a trail. Unless we are greatly amiss, the camp of the wolves is not far away. For safety’s sake, however, | will make a careful examination of our surroundings alone. I’ll be back within an hour at the farthest.” He tried the hammers of his gun and silently directed his steps toward a rocky eminence near by, which appeared to form the commencement of a long and wide-spreading series of rugged hills and mountains. | Bill and Baumann spread their blankets on the heated ground, and after swallowing a mouthful of the murky water, stretched out to rest, with their rifles in their arms. Gomichboo cS (El) m