When found, the water would be in hole at the outlet of some canon, or in little pools which had filled up with rain that had fallen on the higher ground.

Not a drop of rain had fallen on us since we started on this cut-off, and every night was clear and warm.

The elevated parts of the country seemed to be isolated buttes, with no running streams between them but instead, dry lakes with a smooth clay bed, very light in color and so hard that the track of an ox could not be seen on its glittering surface.

At a distance those clay beds looked like water shining in the sun and were generally about three times as far as any one would judge, the air was so clear.

This mirage, or resemblance to water was so perfect as often to deceive us, and almost to our ruin on one or two occasions.
I took Arcane's field glass and took pains to ascend all the high buttes within a day's walk of the road, and this enabled me to get a good survey of the country north and west.