CORRALITAS — BAKANCA. 13 



supports a fine growth of nutricious grasses, and the mezquite bushes, which are scattered over 

 its surface, are the main dependence for the necessary supply of charcoal for smelting operations. 

 To first view, this would seem to offer but a poor supply of this needful article, showing in such 

 situations only a shrubby growth ; but owing to a remarkable peculiarity of this variable and 

 wide-spread shrub, it is found that, when growing in such exposed situations, instead of develop- 

 ing a distinct trunk, it forms thick underground stems. These being grubbed up by a 

 class of peon laborers, are disjiosed in piles to dry, when they become fit for conversion into a 

 superior article of charcoal. 



At a distance of 20 miles over the above described plain we reach the valley of the San 

 Miguel river ; on the eastern bank of which, at a distance of three miles apart, lie the towns of 

 Corralitas and Baranca. We here encounter a beautiful limpid stream and a fertile valley. 

 At Corralitas, this river, as seen by us in the month of February, and again in April, 1852, had 

 an average width of 30 feet, and 2 feet in depth, flowing over a sandy or pebbly bed between 

 shallow alluvial banks. The season of high water is said to be in September, corresponding 

 with the close of the rainy season ; at which time a large portion of the adjoining bottom-land 

 is overflowed, the greater part of which is susceptible of cultivation. The width of this alluvial 

 belt is variable, being occasionally spread out in low marshy tracts, 3 to 5 miles wide ; at other 

 places contracted by the encroachment of mountains on either side. Some 16 miles above 

 Baranca, to the south, are the remains of ancient and extensive structures, known as " Casas 

 Grandes," still occupied by a flourishing agricultural settlement under the same name. A 

 similar character of mountain ranges, as before noticed, bound the valley on either side ; being, 

 however, composed exclusively of igneous rock, the higher peaks showing generally a basaltic 

 structure. The towns of Corralitas and Baranca are built up exclusively with a view to mining 

 operations, the ore being transported to these places for smelting and refining. Living in a 

 state of constant warfare with hostile Indians, the raising of cattle, or even the cultivation o^ 

 the soil, is confined to a bare supply of necessaries. Abandoned fields and deserted ranches are 

 frequently met with, showing a quite recent period of greater prosperity, the decline of which is 

 most evidently due, not to the natural incapacity of the country, but the inefficiency and 

 degeneracy of its population. 



In a direction W.N.W. from Corralitas, and about 24 miles distant, is the town of Janos. 

 Our road to this place, after crossing the Corralitas river, leads at first over the wide grassy 

 bottom-land of its western side, here nearly 5 miles in width. From this we pass over a ridge 

 projecting into the valley below, and descend again on its opposite slope, following near the 

 course of the lower valley, and passing over a shrubby plain similar to that before described, 

 forming a sort of table-land gradually sloping toward the river. The town of lanos is situated 

 on a branch of this main stream flowing from the southwest. On reaching the banks of this 

 latter stream, we find a mere rippling brook running over a pebbly bed. A short distance 

 below, its waters are drawn off for the purpose of irrigating the gardens and cultivated fields 

 which occupy the delta formed at the point of junction of the Janos branch with the San 

 Miguel river. The town is situated on the gravelly table-land on the left side of the stream 

 overlooking the river bottom, and set off in the background by a range of high mountains 

 shutting out the view westward. Our route leads directly toward this western mountain range, 

 which is crossed at a low depression, thence descending into still another wide basin plain, 



