300 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



weather creek, we came to a fine streamlet of fresh water. This was 

 fringed by a beautiful gi'ove of cotton wood. At the distance of four 

 hundred yards, after we struck the water, we came to the Ruins of 

 Abo. Here we are encamped for the night. 



At this time, when so many surveys are making from different points 

 along the Mississippi toward the Pacific, with a view of ascertaining 

 the best route for a railroad track, perhaps the suggestion ma}^ be ot 

 value that the Pass of Abo offers advantages in this respect which ma\ 

 not be found in an}^ of the other passes through these mountains. Thev 

 are certainly of sufficient consideration to make it an object to have 

 this pass thoroughly explored before others shall be adopted. By 

 directing the route from Anton Chico, on the Pecos river, immediately 

 past the Ruins of Abo, and thence through the canon by which the 

 bridle-path lies that has already been spoken of, the open plain in the 

 great valley of the Rio Grande can be reached without tunnelling a rod, 

 and with no more difficulty as to the blasting of rocks and grading 

 down of acclivities, than has been encountered on any of the ordinary 

 railroads in the United States. Let the road be directed across the 

 plain so as to pass the Rio Grande at the mouth of the Puerco river, 

 thence up the valley of that river to its west branch, and up the valley 

 of that branch to Laguna; thence to Zufii, and from that point by the 

 route which the indefatigable Whipple will without a doubt find, to the 

 shores of the Pacific. These suggestions ma}^ possibly be of practical 

 utihty to those who are engaged in by far the greatest enterprise of 

 modern times. 



The Ruins of Abo consist of a large church, and the vestiges of 

 many other buildings, which are now but little else than long heaps of 

 stones, with here and there portions of walls projecting above the sur- 

 rounding rabbish. There is yet standing enough of the church to give 

 one a knowledge of the form and magnitude of the building when in 

 its prime. The ground plan of this structure is in the form of a crosS; 

 it^ longitudinal direction beins? within ten deorees of the magnetic meri- 

 dian. It was, perhaps, situated exactly upon that meridian when the 

 building was erected — the variation of the compass accounting for the 

 present difference. The great entrance was in the southern end. From 

 thence to the head of the cross, where the altar was doubtless situated, 

 it is one hundred and thirty-two feet, inside. This, the nav^ of the 

 church, is thirty-two feet in width. The short arm of the cross, or 

 what in cathedrals is called the transept, is fbrt}-one feet in length and 

 twenty-three in breadth. The transept is sixty-six feet from the door- 

 wa}^ These measurements were made with a tape-line in a very high 

 wind. The round numbers in feet are, therefore, only given, without 

 noting the fractional parts of a foot. 



The walls are of great thickness, and their height is, at this day, in 

 over half the structure, all of fifty feet. The upper edge of these walls 

 is cut into battlements. The church, as well as the neighboring build- 

 ings now in ruins about it, was built of a stratified, dark red sandstone, 

 such as crops out along the creek and makes its appearance on the 

 sides of the surrounding hills. The pieces of stone do not average 

 over two and a half inches in thickness, and are not generally over one 

 foot in length. Each piece is of the form it had when it was broken 



