Page 29 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

William H. Emory
Stephen W. Kearny was placed in command of the Army of the West in 1846. William Emory was attached to the military expedition of Kearny. The Mormon Battalion, under Cooke’s command, was also part of the Army of the West.
Assigned to Emory were John James Abert, John L. Peck, William H. Warner, Norman Bestor, and John Mix Stanley (artist). This expedition was foremost a military venture in support of American efforts in the Mexican-American War.
Abert and Peck had left the expedition prior to its venture south from Santa Fe.
One of the problems which nagged Emory throughout his travels west was that the instrument he used to determine elevation proved to be very sensitive to any vibration, even to a horse passing by hundreds of feet away. This undoubtedly led to errors in determining the elevation of locations along the way.
The following account of his crossing of the Black Range picks up on October 9, 1846, and continues through to October 18, 1846. It also includes entries from other parts of the official record - Notes of a military reconnoissance, from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers.
subspecies of Scaled Quail. The one noted by Emory in this report, and described by Abert in his reports, was not the nominate form. That subspecies is found only in Mexico.
The black tailed rabbit (photo on following page) mentioned by Emory is the Black-tailed Jackrabbit, Lepus californicus, which is still (like the Scaled Quail) common in this area.
The mountains Emory references were probably the Magdalena, San Mateo, and Black Ranges. Traveling across the table lands on the west side of the Rio Grande, and east of these mountains,
October 9, 1846. Account Starts on page 54 of Notes of a military reconnoissance, from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers. At this point Emory is south of Socorro on the River.
The quail Emory references is the Scaled Quail, Callipepla squamata; its iconic silhouette is shown at the top right. The nominate subspecies had been described in 1830 by Nicholas Aylward Vigors, from a specimen from the Central Plateau of Mexico. Vigors described, at least, 110 bird species. Like many an authority, he was not a collector and never saw the Scaled Quail in its native habitat. There are currently four recognized
would have been (and is) hard traveling on foot, on horse (mule, etc.), or by wagon. It is in this general area that the early expeditions opted to exchange wagons for mules. The wagon roads which finally opened up going west from the Rio Grande were the precursors of the railroads which would dramatically change the human economy and society of the area - as well as the natural world.
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