[92] Baughl's Sidings is a switch and large storing-place for ties. Even the Spaniards call it La Switcha. It is about 800 m.—2,620 ft.—from the foot of the mesa, in a belt of fine large pine timber, very high, and gives glimpses of splendid views over the valley of Pecos to the Sierras beyond. Climate fine, but nights very cold. The buildings are as yet nearly all temporary; it is more a camp than a place as is it now. I spent ten very happy days here, from the 28th of August to the 6th of September,—or rather nights, since the days were, with two exceptions (5th and 6th of September, when I visited Pecos town and explored the high mesa), devoted to the study of the ruins. I shall always gratefully remember the uniform kindness and attention with which its inhabitants and transient guests have treated me, and assisted me in my work. Aside of those whom I shall have occasion to name in the body of my report, I take occasion to express my thanks here to Messrs. McPherson & Co., and to their obliging manager, Mr. Wright; also to the station agent.
[93] On the right side of the Arroyo de Pecos, there is a wide amphitheatre bottom, which was filled with red clay, like that of which the adobe at the church is made, and which appears to have been partly dug out. The place is to the right of the road also, which there crosses the creek. The only objection to the surmise is in the fact that along this entire bottom I found not the slightest trace of obsidian. Pottery, however, is scattered everywhere. On the left side of the creek, unless more than a mile below, there is no place where the soil is sufficiently thick or sufficiently free from ruins and scattered stones, to permit the enormous quantity of clay needed for the church to be secured.
[94] Lieut.-Col. Emory, Notes of a Military Reconnoissance, p. 30, and two plates.
[95] The walls, or foundations rather, appear as follows:—The interstices are often filled with tufts of grama, and the stones themselves look very old and worn, covered with lichens and moss.
[96] According to Mariano Ruiz and to Mrs. Kozlowski. The former has lived in Pecos since 1837. But few, if any, of the dead are buried there; the majority were entombed within the church itself.
[97] P. José Amando Niel, Apuntamientos que sobre el Terreno hizo el ... Annotations to the history of Fray Géronimo Zarate Salmeron, in Documentos para la Historia de México, 3 series, vol. i. p. 99.
[98] Called by the Spaniards Plaza de Pecos. It is a comparatively new place, the only church-book still in possession of Rev. Father Léon Mailluchet, the present priest, commences in 1862. Including the scattered casitas several miles around, its population is not over five hundred souls. It is situated in a narrow vale or hollow, not far west from the Rio Pecos itself, and has a modest but clean and tidy church, with a small belfry. All the houses are of adobe. Lieutenant-Colonel Emory (Notes, Executive Document 41, p. 30) speaks of it in 1846 as "the modern village of Pecos, ... with a very inconsiderable population." As yet there are but very few Americans in the plaza. My recollections of Pecos are highly pleasant (5th September), owing to the friendly reception tendered me by Mr. E. K. Walters, Sr. Juan Bacay Salazar, and Father L. Mailluchet. According to Colonel Emory, its altitude is nearly 6,366 ft. (p. 163). Lat. about 35° 30' N.
[99] See [Plate I.]
[100] See [Plate IX.]