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170 Written for Burke’s Weekly. THE YOUNG EXPLORERS; OR, BOY-UPS m TEXAS. BY JOHN C. bUVAL, Author of “ Jack Dobell; or, A Boy's Ad ventures in Texas," “ The Adventures of Big-Foot TV all ace," etc CHAPTER XX. The Canon and Valley de Uvalde —A Magni ficent View—How the Valley took its Name — Trip to the "Sugar Loaf ” Mountain — Wil lie Takes Formal Possession—A Singular Pit Discovered —A Good Dinner and Good Appetites— Uncle Seth’s Opinion of the Sil ver Mine. iIiHE next morning, after an 'early breakfast, we saddled id r our horses, and “rolled out,” taking our way up the Sabinal, towards the Canon de Uvalde, some seven or eight miles distant. The country we passed over was rugged and broken, and intersected in some places by deep gulches, which we found very difficult to cross; but at length we reached the pass, and began to ascend the high rocky hills that shut in the Canon de Uvalde, along a narrow path, scarcely wide enough in some places for two horses to travel abreast. After toiling up this rugged pass for about half an hour, we at length came to the highest point of it, and the whole valley of Uvalde ijurst at once upon our view— extending towards the north as far as the eye could reach, and surrounded on all sides by high rocky hills, covered with stunted cedar, and other species of evergreen shrubs. Upon a little level plateau of ground, on the very apex of the hill we had ascended, we huddled up together and halted a moment to look at the beautiful valley spread out like a map before us. It was indeed a charming and- romantic scene that pre sented itself to our sight—one that I had never seen surpassed, even among the valleys and mountains ol the far famed Blue Ridge of Virginia. The valley, as we ascertained after wards, is about twenty-five miles in length, and from three to five in breadth. The Sabinal, a beautiful, clear little stream, meanders through it in regular curves, from one side to the other, its whole course, from the high point where we then stood, being plainly marked out by the dark foliage of the tall cypress trees that every where grew along its banks. The val ley itself was undulating, though not broken; and its surface was thickly dotted with clumps and groves of live oaks, elms, peccans, and other forest trees. Far away up the valley, Uncle Seth pointed out to us some dark looking objects on the prairie, which he thought were either wild horses or buffaloes ; but they were such a long way off, he could not say certainly what animals they were. Descending by a narrow, crooked BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. trail, very similar to the one we had travelled up, we at length reached the valley, and crossing over to the wrest ern side, we encamped near the Sabi nal, in a large grove of peccan trees, a few hundred yards above where the stream makes its way jin a narrow canon, through the hills at the southern extremity. This canon, as we subse quently found out, was impassable, even for a man on foot, for the bed of the stream was obstructed by innumer able huge boulders, which had rolled down from the cliffs above, and was hemmed in on both sides by perpendi cular walls of rock, several hundred feet in height. In fact, as we ascer tained by subsequent examination, the valley could only be entered at two points—through the pass we had just traversed, and by a similar one at its northern termination. Everywhere else we encountered precipitous walls of rock, broken and jagged, and covered — wherever the inclination was not too great for the accumulation of soil—with a dense growth of chaparral or thorny shrubs. In same places, little clear streams of water, flowing from numer ous springs in the surrounding hills, trickled down the face of these walls of rock, and sparkled in the sunlight like veins of molten silver. The valley took its name from a Spanish officer, Uvalde, who it is said, soon after the first settlement of the 'Spaniards in Texas, surprised a large party of Comanche warriors in it, and, having taken the precaution to station a guard at both of the passes, he mas sacred all of them, not one Indian being left to tell the tale. At any rate, this is the Mexican tradition concerning the affair, and it is universally credited by them. In the peccan grove where we had stopped, we found the remains of what had been a large Indian encamp ment-broken lodge poles, numerous pits in which they had barbecued their buffalo humps and bears’ heads, and quantities of bones and other offal scat tered about in every direction ; but the sign was all old, showing that the en campment had been abandoned for many mouths previous to our coming. About half a mile apparently to the east of the grove in which we had pitched our camp, we noticed a singu lar-looking “sugar loaf” mountain, rising abruptly from the plain ; and as soon as we had staked our animals, Mr. Pitt, Lawrence, Willie and myself start ed out to make a reconnoisance of it. Before leaving, Uncle Seth, as usual, warned us to be cautious, and keep on the watch for Indians; “for,” said he, “though the chances are that there’s none in the valley now, as we have seed no fresh sign, yit you must larn, boys, to be always on your guard when you are in the Ingen couutry, for when you least expect ’em, there the dratted varmints are sure to be.” We promised Uncle Seth to keep a * good look out, and started towards the mountain. But instead of finding it half a mile distant, by the time we reached the foot of it we found we had travelled at least two miles, so much had we been deceived as to its real distance. Three sides of the mountain were almost perpendicular, but the fourth was somewhat more sloping, and we determined to climb up to the top of it, and see what was to be seen from that commanding eminence. Deposit ing our rifles in a shallow cave at the base, we began to climb the mountain, which in some places even on that side was so steep that we had to pull our selves up by the projecting corners of the rock and the stunted bushes that grew in its crevices. At length, after considerable difficulty, we gained the top, and the view we had from that elevated position amply repaid us for all our toil and labor. We could see the whole valley spread out before us; and near at hand —so near apparently that it seemed as if we could almost have thrown a stone into it —lay our camp in the peccan grove, our horses picketted around, and the smoke from the fire curling up above the tops of the trees. The mountain terminated at the summit in a sharp cone, formed of a single flat rock, not more than twenty five or thirty feet in diameter. Around the edges of this we noticed a number of loose boulders, and we amused our selves for some time by rolling them down the sides of,the mountain. It was glorious fun to see them pitching over the steep declivities, like an avalanche, gathering*momentum~as they descend ed, until at last, crashing with terrible force through everything that stood in their way, they went smoking and bounding out upon the plain below. “Boys,” said Willie, “if we only had a good supply of ‘donnecks’ up here, we could whip the whole Coman che nation, if they were to attack us.” “No doubt of it,” said Lawrence; “but suppose they were to pitch their camp just beyond the range of our rocks, and wait for us to come down for water or something to eat, what then ? ” “Oh, they certainly wouldn’t be so unreasonable as not to give us a chance to roll our rocks at ’em,” said Willie; “but speaking of something to eat, re minds me that I am as hungry as a wolf, and I move that we get down out of this, and make tracks for camp.” Willie’s motion was seconded by all; but before we began the descent, he pulled off an old red flannel shirt he had on, which he tied to one end of the longest stick he could find, and firmly planted the other in a crevice of the rock. “There,” said he, when he had fixed his banner “ on the outer walls” to his satisfaction, “I formally take posses sion of the Canon de Uvalde, in the name of Sam Houston, the President of the Republic of Texas.” Giving three cheers to Willie’s ban- ner, which flaunted out bravely in the breeze, we began the descent to the valley, which we found even more dif ficult than the ascent; and before we reached the bottom, we had each had a tumble or two, but without any serious injury to any of us. Shouldering our guns again, we start ed in the direction of camp, but had gone only a few yards from the base of the mountain, when we came across a deep pit, into which several of us were very near tumbling, as its mouth was almost wholly concealed by the thick bushes that grew about it. Around the mouth jof thejpit"were mounds of scoria or rubbish, and a short distance from it we noticed the remains of what had once evidently been a furnace. The pit was perhaps twenty feet deep, and on one side of it we discovered a rude ladder leaning against the wall. Mr. Pitt endeavored to descend to the bot tom by means of this ladder, but after going down a few feet, he found it was so rickettyjand hejwas__afraid to venture further, and came back. Mr. Pitt was the only one among us whoj pretended to any knowledge of such things, and after some further ex amination, he came to the conclusion that the pit was the entrance or shaft of a mine that had been worked many years previously —probably by the Spa niards—but what sort of metal they had extracted from it he was unable to say positively; though, from the app •*'*“*"" ance of some of they're scattered ablaut, he was inclined to think that it was a silver mine. He took several small pieces of the ore, and put them in his shot pouch, intending, as he said, to have them assayed the first opportu nity ; but unfortunately he lost them before we got back to the settlements. I have never visited the Canon de Uvalde since that time; nor do I know whether or not any one ever subse quently discovered this mine. It can be easily found, however, as it is only a few yards from the north-eastern base of the sugar loaf mountain. Returning to camp, we reached it, much to our satisfaction, just as Cudjo had finished dishing up dinner; for our scramble up and down the mountain, and our walk to and from it, had given us all a famous appetite. The dinner consisted of hot coffee, bear steaks, hard tack, and wild artichokes, of which last great quantities were found growing in the vicinity of our camp ; and after we had each drank a quart of strong coffee, and partaken of the solids in proportion, we would not have been the least afraid to have tackled Mont Blanc itself, if it had been handy to us. We told Uncle Seth about the mine we had discovered ; and he said that the Mexicans had often told him that the Spaniards, a great many years ago, had worked silver mines in the Canon, but he did not know that any of them had ever been found, unless the pit we had seen that day should turn out to be