space where there was nothing but short brown grass.  In most places, however, the leafless, sprawling mesquites were scattered rather thinly over the ground, cutting off an extensive view and merely adding to the melancholy barrenness of the landscape.  The road was nothing but a couple of dusty wheel-tracks; the ground was parched, and the grass cropped close by the gaunt, starved cattle.  As we drove along buzzards and great hawks occasionally soared overhead.  Now and then we passed lines of wild-looking, long-horned steers, and once we came on the grazing horses of a cow-outfit, just preparing to start northward over the trail to the fattening pasture.  Occasionally we encountered one or two cowpunchers:  either Texans, habited exactly like their brethren in the North, with broad-brimmed gray hats, blue shirts, silk neckerchiefs, and leather leggings; or else Mexicans, more gaudily dressed, and wearing peculiarly stiff, very broad-brimmed hats with conical tops.

Toward the end of our ride we got where the ground was more fertile, and there had recently been a sprinkling of rain.  Here we came across wonderful flower prairies.  In one spot I kept catching glimpses through the mesquite trees of lilac stretches which I had first thought must be ponds of water.  On coming nearer they proved to be acres on acres thickly covered with beautiful lilac-colored flowers.  Farther on we came to where broad bands of red flowers covered the ground for many furlongs; then their places were taken by yellow blossoms, elsewhere by white.  Generally each band or patch of ground was covered densely by flowers of the same color, making a great vivid streak across the landscape; but in places they were mixed together, red, yellow, and purple, interspersed in patches and curving bands, carpeting the prairie in a strange, bright pattern.

Finally, toward evening we reached the Nueces.  Where we struck it first the bed was dry, except in occasional deep, malarial-looking pools, but a short distance below there began to be a running current.  Great blue herons were stalking beside these pools, and from one we flushed a white ibis.  In the woods were reddish cardinal birds, much less brilliant in plumage than the true cardinals and the scarlet tanagers; and yellow-headed titmice which had already built large domed nests.

In the valley of the Nueces itself, the brush grew thick.  There were great groves of pecan trees, and ever-green live-oaks stood in many places, long, wind-shaken tufts of gray moss hanging from their limbs.  Many of the trees in the wet spots were of giant size, and the whole landscape was semi-tropical in character.  High on a bluff shoulder overlooking the course of the river was perched the ranch house, toward which we were bending our steps; and here we were received with the hearty hospitality characteristic of the ranch country everywhere.