[111] Wislizenus found the temperature of these springs 84° Fahrenheit. There is now a station called Ojo Calientes, on the Mexican Central Railway, but it is some distance from the springs.--ED.
[112] The size of Laguna de Encinillas (Lake of Live-Oaks) varies greatly with the season of drouth or rain.--ED.
[113] For a brief sketch of Chihuahua, see Pattie's _Narrative_, in our volume xviii, p. 153, note 85.--ED.
Trip from Chihuahua to Aguascalientes, in 1835 -- Southern Trade and _Ferias_ -- Hacienda de la Zarca, and its innumerable Stock -- Rio Nazas, and Lakes without outlet -- Perennial Cotton -- Exactions for Water and Pasturage -- Village of Churches -- City of Durango and its Peculiarities -- Persecution of Scorpions -- Negro-ship in the ascendant -- Robbers and their _modus_ _operandi_ -- City of Aguascalientes -- Bathing Scene -- Haste to return to the North -- Mexican Mule-shoeing -- Difficulties and Perplexities -- A Friend in time of need -- Reach Zacatecas -- City Accommodations -- Hotels unfashionable -- _Locale_, Fortifications, etc. of the City of Zacatecas -- Siege by Santa Anna and his easy-won Victory -- At Durango again -- Civil Warfare among the 'Sovereigns' -- Hairbreadth 'scapes -- Troubles of the Road -- Safe Arrival at Chihuahua -- Character of the Southern Country.
The patient reader who may have accompanied me thus far, without murmuring at the dryness of some of the details, will perhaps pardon me for presenting here a brief account of a trip which I made to _Aguascalientes_, in the interior of Northern Mexico, in the year 1835, and which the arrangement I have adopted has prevented me from introducing before, in its chronological order.
The trade of the South constitutes a very important branch of the commerce of the country, in which foreigners, as well as natives, { 85} are constantly embarking. It is customary for most of those who maintain mercantile establishments in Chihuahua, to procure assortments of Mexican fabrics from the manufactories of Leon, Aguascalientes, and other places of the same character in the more southern districts of the republic. At certain seasons of the year, here are held regular _ferias_, at which the people assemble in great numbers, as well of sellers as of purchasers. There are some eight or ten of these annual fairs held in the republic, each of which usually lasts a week or more. It was about as much, however, from a desire to behold the sunny districts of the South, as for commercial purposes, that I undertook this expedition in 1835; and as my engagements have not permitted me to revisit this section since, the few [Pg163] notes of interest I was then able to collect, seem to come more appropriately in this part of my work than in any other place that I could readily select.