Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 422 | Page 6

east, 1000
miles from any civilised settlement on either the north or south, and
200 miles from the farthest advanced lines of New Mexico in the desert.
They are, in short, lost; but in due time they are found again by other
explorers. These strangers are standing on the edge of a cliff several
hundred feet sheer down. 'Away below--far below where we were--lay
a lovely valley, smiling in all the luxuriance of bright vegetation. It was
of nearly an oval shape, bounded upon all sides by a frowning precipice,
that rose around it like a wall. Its length could not have been less than
ten miles, and its greatest breadth about half of its length. We were at
its upper end, and of course viewed it lengthwise. Along the face of the
precipice there were trees hanging out horizontally, and some of them
even growing with their tops downward. These trees were cedars and
pines; and we could perceive also the knotted limbs of huge cacti
protruding from the crevices of the rocks. We could see the wild
mezcal, or maguey-plant, growing against the cliff--its scarlet leaves
contrasting finely with the dark foliage of the cedars and cacti. Some of
these plants stood out on the very brow of the overhanging precipice,
and their long curving blades gave a singular character to the landscape.
Along the face of the dark cliffs all was rough, and gloomy, and
picturesque. How different was the scene below! Here everything
looked soft, and smiling, and beautiful. There were broad stretches of
woodland, where the thick foliage of the trees met and clustered
together, so that it looked like the surface of the earth itself; but we
knew it was only the green leaves, for here and there were spots of
brighter green, that we saw were glades covered with grassy turf. The
leaves of the trees were of different colours, for it was now late in the
autumn. Some were yellow, and some of a deep claret colour: some
were bright-red, and some of a beautiful maroon; and there were green,
and brighter green, and others of a silvery-whitish hue. All these
colours were mingled together, and blended into each other, like the
flowers upon a rich carpet. Near the centre of the valley was a large
shining object, which we knew to be water. It was evidently a lake of
crystal purity, and smooth as a mirror. The sun was now up to meridian
height, and his yellow beams falling upon its surface caused it to gleam

like a sheet of gold. We could not trace the outlines of the water, for the
trees partially hid it from our view, but we saw that the smoke that had
at first attracted us rose up somewhere from the western shore of the
lake.' In this strange oasis they found what appeared to be a snug
farm-house, with stables and outhouses, garden and fields, horses and
cattle. Here they were hospitably entertained by the proprietor, his wife,
and two sons, and served by a faithful negro; and of course it is the
history of the settlers, and their struggles, expedients, and contrivances
which form the staple of the work.
In this history we have the process of building a log-house, and the
usual modes of assembling round the squatter such of the comforts of
life as may be obtained in the desert; but our family Robinson appears
to have been the most ingenious as well as the most fortunate of
adventurers, for there are very few, even of the luxuries of civilised
society, which are beyond his reach. The natural history of the book,
however, is its main feature; and the adventures of the lost family with
the unreasoning denizens of the desert remind us not unfrequently of
the pictures of Audubon. This is among the earliest:--'There were high
cliffs fronting us, and along the face of these five large reddish objects
were moving, so fast that I at first thought they were birds upon the
wing. After watching them a moment, however, I saw that they were
quadrupeds; but so nimbly did they go, leaping from ledge to ledge,
that it was impossible to see their limbs. They appeared to be animals
of the deer species, somewhat larger than sheep or goats; but we could
see that, in place of antlers, each of them had a pair of huge curving
horns. As they leaped downward, from one platform of the cliffs to
another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as though they
were "turning somersaults," and seemed at times to come down heads
foremost! There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to within less
than a hundred yards of the place where we sat. It ended in an