Very regretfully I had to leave them and carefully avoided passing that way for some days to come till the tragedy had terminated.

The Little Colorado River, and afterwards the Pecos River in New Mexico, I have often seen so thick with dead and dying cattle that a man might walk up and down the river on the bodies of these unfortunate creatures.

The stench would become horrible, till the spring flood came to sweep the carcasses to the sea or covered them up with deposit.
Quicksand is much more holding than mere river mud.

If only the tip of the tail or one single foot of the animal is covered by the stuff, then even two stout horses will not pull it out.

The Pecos River is particularly dangerous on account of its quicksandy nature, and it was my custom, when having to cross the mess wagon, to send across the ramuda of two or three hundred saddle horses to tramp the river-bed solid beforehand.