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quitting the Cañada of Catorce (Dec. 4), we began to pass what we all termed the Desert, or, in other words, a plain, extending, without any other variety than the occasional undulations of the surface, from the mountains of Cătōrcĕ to those of Zăcătēcăs, a distance of about seventy leagues. The whole of this space is covered with a sort of mimosa, with very long thorns; another smaller shrub, the name of which I do not know, but which resembles the box in the shape and colour of its leaf; mezquites, and dwarf palms, bearing a fruit not unlike the real date in appearance, and by no means unpalatable. Water there is none, except in vast "tanques," or reservoirs, kept up at a considerable expence, as it is upon them that the proprietors rely for the preservation of the enormous flocks of sheep and goats which are bred upon their estates.