148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FEB. 19, 
A Visit to the Falls of Bassasseachic. 
By Epwarp D. Se tr, M. E. 
The falls of Bassasseachic are located in the state of Chihua- 
hua, in Northern Mexico. Wide, sloping plains cover part of 
the state, and form the first portion of an ascent, graphically, 
but incorrectly, described by Humboldt, as so gradual that it 
makes a natural wagon road from the United States to the city 
of Mexico. 
Much of the state, therefore, is a high plateau, but it is. 
broken occasionally by isolated ranges of mountains that are 
often almost destitute of trees or, indeed, of any vegetation. 
They are large masses of rock that stand apart from the Sierra 
Madre Mountains that cross the western part of this State and 
the eastern part of Sonora. 
The point from which journeys to the interior begin is the 
city of Chihuahua. The city is situated in an open valley be- 
tween 4,000 and 5,000 feet above the sea. The table-land is 
often subject to long continued drouth. Not unfrequently a 
year passes without rain, and famine ensues from the failure of 
the crops. When a storm does reach the interior the dry 
ground is so quickly washed away that the surface is cut by 
deep fissures or barrancas. These are usually dry, but some- 
times the bed of swollen streams. 
In this way the process of erosion and degradation has been 
carried on with great rapidity on the plain and in the mountains. 
The softer rocks have been worn down, leaving the harder ones 
in sharp, broken outlines, or sometimes standing alone as soli- 
tary pillars of remarkable size and height. 
The action of the winds must also be noted in this country 
of topographical surprises. The walls of a ravine not far from 
Jesus Maria have been cut into fantastic shapes by the com- 
bined action of wind and sand. Castles and spires about 200 
feet high and of remarkable symmetry line one side for a mile 
or more. Occasionally window-like openings are seen in the 
buttresses of rock that justify the name, Tierra Agujarada, or 
“needled earth,” given to the country by the natives. The rocks 
are far more curious than those in the well known “ Garden of 
the Gods,” near Pike’s Peak, Col. 
One morning I was one of the passengers in the stage that 
leaves Chihuahua twice a week for Cusihuriachic. We were 
drawn by ten mules over the roughest roads from about three 
o’clock in the morning until after six at night before the stage 
rolled into Cusihuriachic, where we spent the night. The fol- 
