120 NATURAL RESOURCES SURVEY 



width but also of length however its channel winds to the 

 southward under an ever increasing heat much of its way 

 through a valley cut in loose sands, and through flood plains, 

 at times a half score miles in width where numerous "ace- 

 quias" rob the river of its water for the plotted ranches which 

 border its banks on either side. The loose character of the 

 materials over which it flows, evaporation, and irrigation are 

 causes which naturally combine at the critical season of the 

 year, when rainfull is scant to cause the river to diminish 

 greatly in volume or to cease flowing entirely. At other times 

 when such as the Galisteo, Puerco and other important tribu- 

 taries function as great eave-trougs to the roof-like drainage of 

 the mountains, deluged by cloud-bursts, the containing dykes 

 breaks, the big acequias are gorged and overflow and havoc 

 is rampant among the small fruit farms along the flood p lains 



THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY 



The Rio Grande Valley is the central feature of this part 

 of the center of the state. The most densely populated * * * * 

 locality is along the flood-plains of the Rio Grande, and about 

 one half of the way down its couse is situated the metropolis 

 of the state Albuquerque. On either side the River is 

 flanked by broad, gently sloping clinoplains, a term coined 

 by Herrick for the incorrectly called ''Mesas." These plains 

 are of considerable importance for grazing but on account of 

 their general inaccessibly for irrigation, and the loose in- 

 coherent character of their soils, they are destined * * * * 

 ever to be of very little importance agriculturally. Little 

 use is made of these mesas or clinoplains at present, as has 

 been stated, except for local pasturage by ranchers, in whicn 

 fenced pastures are often resorted to. Occasionally large 

 herds of sheep in their characteristic "take a bite and run" 

 style, pass across them leaving nothing in their wake but the 

 prickly pear, ****** pin-cushion cactus and the 

 bedraggled gutierrezia. The surface of these plains is even 

 as far as the eye can see, rising to elevations of one thousand 

 feet or more above the river only, at their greatest distance 

 on either side, broken only now and then by deeply washed 

 arroyos w T hose incisement in these plains is not a marked 

 feature topographically. 



