has gained currency by the extraordinary imaginative writings of
novelists. These trashy fictions represent the western plains,
or prairies, as flower-beds. In this a great mistake has become
prevalent. A traveler often pursues his way over them for many days
without seeing anything to interrupt the continuity of green grass
except it be the beautiful road over which he is journeying. Near the
slopes of the mountains and on the river banks the remark will
apply. There, fields of wild flowers are often found growing in great
luxuriance.

The settlement was soon after commenced by Kit Carson and Maxwell,
and, as now completed, is really a beautiful spot. It is located about
midway down the valley. Among its several houses, there are two which
are more conspicuous than the rest. In the finest of these two, the
owner of which has taken great pains and spent much valuable time
with its construction, lives Maxwell, whose honest pride is the being
master of a model farm. In the residence next most to be admired in
Rayado, Kit Carson sometimes sojourns.

The mansion which belongs to Maxwell would be an ornament to any
country. At one time, it was used as a garrison for American troops,
and on it, the soldiers made many improvements. It is built one story
high, in the shape of a hollow square, and has the size of an ordinary
block in a city. Around the whole runs a fine veranda. With its lofty
ceilings, large and airy rooms, and its fine yard in the centre of the
square, which is well stored with its fowls, pigeons, and other pet
animals, with appropriate kennels; with antlers of noble buck and elk;
hams of venison, buffalo meat, wild turkeys, etc., and near by a
fine vegetable garden; altogether, it presents a picture of sumptuous
living rarely seen within the pale of civilization. Maxwell counts