NEW MEXICO 



4172 



NEW MEXICO 



State institutions of charity and correction 

 are an asylum for the blind at Alamogordo; an 

 insane hospital at Las Vegas; a reform school 

 at Springer; a miners' hospital at Raton; the 

 penitentiary at Santa Fe. These institutions 

 are controlled by separate boards of directors. 

 In 1915 a law was passed making the education 

 of blind children compulsory. 



The Land. New Mexico is a vast, elevated 

 plain, sloping gradually south and southeast, 



E X A ' S 



NEW MEXICO 



SCALE or 



OUTLINE MAP OF NEW MEXICO 

 Showing the boundaries, principal rivers, chief 

 cities, location of mineral deposits, coal and gas 

 areas and the highest point of land in the state. 



and broken by steep, rocky mountains and 

 mesas. A level, arid section known as the 

 Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain, lies in the 

 southeast. It is separated from the foothills 

 of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains 

 by the valley of the Pecos River, the only part 

 of the state having an elevation of less than 

 3,000 feet. Near the center the northern bound- 

 ary of New Mexico is penetrated by the Rocky 

 Mountains, and the whole northern part is gen- 

 erally mountainous. There are very lofty peaks 

 in this section, among them being Truchas, ris- 

 ing 13,275 feet above the sea, and Cerro Blanco, 

 Taos, Costilla, Baldy, Lake and Mora peaks, 

 all having an altitude of over 12,000 feet. Be- 

 tween the isolated mesas and groups of bare 

 mountains of the Front Range, lie the grassy 



plains, or basins, called "bolsons" (purses) by 

 the Spaniards. 



The Rio Grande Valley crosses the state 

 from north to south between the central moun- 

 tains and the lofty plateau forming the Conti- 

 nental Divide. The table-land, scarred by deep 

 valleys and studded with the high peaks of the 

 parallel ranges of the Southern Rockies, extends 

 across the state in a southwesterly direction. In 

 the southern part of the state, covering an area 

 of 300 square miles, there is a great basin of 

 white sands in which many kinds of white rep- 

 tiles and insects are found, this being a most 

 interesting example of protective coloration. 

 This is also the region of "alkali flats," lava 

 beds and arid valleys where grow only the sage- 

 brush, giant cactus and Spanish bayonet. 



Rivers and Lakes. For a region of such scanty 

 rainfall, rivers are numerous, and New Mexico 

 has more streams than any other mining state 

 of the Union. The small section of the state 

 west of the Continental Divide is drained to- 

 ward the Pacific by the San Juan, Rio Puerco, 

 San Francisco, Little Colorado and Gila rivers. 

 The Rio Grande, flowing the length of the 

 state, and its tributary, the Rio Pecos, which 

 meets it in Texas, are New Mexico's largest 

 rivers, and drain the central section. Both of 

 these rivers cut their way through deep canyons 

 in the northern mountains but become sluggish 

 in the southern plains. During the flood sea- 

 son, the Rio Grande usually inundates the low- 

 lands and is often called the "Nile of New 

 Mexico." It is fed by many tributaries rising 

 in the Divide, the largest of these being the 

 Chama and Jemez rivers. In the northeast 

 corner of the state, the Canadian flows through 

 rocky gorges and canyons, and extends into 

 Oklahoma, where it joins the Arkansas River. 

 There are many small streams which are lost 

 in the sands. The waters of the temporary 

 lakes, formed by melting snows, evaporate dur- 

 ing the summer, leaving barren mud beds in- 

 crusted with salt. 



Climate. New Mexico has only about twenty- 

 three cloudy or rainy days a year. There are 

 no extremes of heat or cold, but owing to the 

 absorption and radiation of the sun's heat by 

 the great sandy areas, there is a wide daily 

 range in temperature. The average winter tem- 

 perature is 35 F. and the mean summer tem- 

 perature 71 F. The annual rainfall ranges 

 from six inches in the southwestern valleys to 

 thirty inches in the northern mountains. The 

 snow accumulates to great depths on the moun- 

 tain peaks and forms a steady source of water 



