

weeks were spent, one can form a very good idea of what the country 

 between there and the Rio Grande is like. The lower, or business por- 

 tion of the town, is built where once the waters of the bay rolled. This 

 low portion ends rather abruptly on the south side, where the bluff rises 

 precipitately to a height of thirty or forty feet. It gradually becomes 

 broader, until its northern portion is about two miles wide. The bulk of 

 this width, though, is an arm which juts out, forming the division between 

 Corpus Christi Bay and Nueces Bay. Its extreme northern portion is 

 low and flat, marshy near the water, and at times of unusually high 

 water, overflowed. The plants which occur on these " Flats" are those 

 which are usually found in saline soil, such as Batis maritima, Suaeda 

 suffrutescens, etc. Here the ascent to the plateau is less abrupt, and 

 the plateau itself lower. Much of this low land, at least near the beach, 

 is composed of a shell deposit, instead of sand. One can dig into it for 

 a distance of several feet without meeting with anything else. 



Corpus Christi Bay is very shallow, the maximum depth being seven- 

 teen feet, but the average is hardly ten. Nueces Bay is still shallower 

 and full of quicksand. I am told that long ago Spanish ships of the 

 largest size were accustomed to cast anchor where now a boat with a 

 draught of three or four feet would run aground. At present the only 

 deep water inlet is Aransas Pass, at the upper end of Mustang Island. It 

 seems, therefore, that a gradual elevation of the land is slowly going on. 



The plateau is level, cut here and there near the shore by arroyos, or 

 ravines. Near these the ground is full of holes, which gradually become 

 larger, until finally they cave in, forming side branches. The soil is 

 very rich, and is called " black land," or "black waxy land." When 

 wet by rain it becomes exceedingly sticky, great clods of it clinging to 

 one's shoes, so that walking becomes extremely tiresome. It is covered 

 with sod, and under favorable conditions would be a splendid agricultural 

 country ; but lack of rain makes the raising of crops uncertain, and dur- 

 ing the past year many cattle perished from starvation. 



Until last April, there had not been a good rain for over four years, 

 nothing but light showers at intervals, and these scarcely sufficed to 

 moisten the ground. Early in April there were two or three heavy rain- 

 storms, but storms of this kind occurring at long intervals do very little 

 good and often much damage. 



During the spring months there is a great deal of cloudy weather, and 

 in the coast region, one would expect to have an abundance of rain. 

 The strong trade winds which blow almost continually at that time pro- 

 bably carry the clouds away before they have had time to deposit their 

 moisture. 



