26 



into another campaign equally severe, but they would be uselesg 

 alone. 



I lay all these facts, and my own opinions upon them, before the 

 ■department with great regret. I have long been interested both per- 

 sonally and officially in this experiment, and have spent three years 

 in laborious eiforts to accomplish it. The disappointment I feel in 

 being again obliged to relinquish it uncompleted is very great, but I 

 am assured that the department will do justice to the zeal and industry 

 with which it has been prosecuted. 



I have the strong belief that the success of the experiment in other 

 places wall yet justify the expenditures the government has made, 

 to determine a question of so much consequence. 



I shall await the decision of the War Department as to m5' future 

 operations at this camp. I regret to report also that scurvy is be- 

 ginning to break out in the command, and that no supplies of anti- 

 scorbutics can be procured except the fresh vegetables on the Rio 

 Grande one hundred and seventy miles distant, and which com- 

 pletely spoil before they can be hauled out to this camp. The com- 

 mand has now been nearly a year without supplies except the bare 

 ration. 



I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 



JOHN POPE, 

 Captain Topograpical Engineers. 



Captain A. A. Humphreys, 



Corps of Top^l Ung'rs in charge 



Office ExpV s and Surveys, JVasJmigton, D. G. 



Camp on Pecos River, • 

 August 22, 1858. 



Sir: I have the honor to report that since the date of my last re- 

 port, the work of boring has been completely arrested, as with men 

 it is impossible to handle an auger of 1050 feet. I am waiting the 

 return of the wagons sent to Indianola, Texas, for a new boiler, but I 

 have to say that I do not consider it practicable to carry these borings 

 to greater depth with any means within reach of the appropriation. 

 It will in my judgment be a waste of time and money further to prose- 

 cute the work under present circumstances. I therefore recommend 

 that the party be moved to some other of the points designated in my 

 instructions, where the chance of success will be far better. 



The geological structure of this plain is so very peculiar, its extent 

 so much greater than is known to the experience of any geologist, and 

 in consequence the mechanical and physical difficulties of carrying 

 borings to a greater depth, have been so constant and so unusual in the 

 history of such operations, that after a whole year of unremitted and 

 laborious work, the boring has been scarcely at all advanced. 



Facilities and conveniences impossible to secure at a point so remote 

 will be essential to a successful completion of any such experiment on 

 the Llano Estacado, and until the government is willing to go to ex- 



