28 



These constitute our physical difficulties, and they are, so far as I 

 know, foreign to the experience of any well borer in the United 

 States. Certainly no difficulties of the kind are recorded in the his- 

 tory of such operations elsewhere. The mechanical difficulties of the 

 work have also been peculiar and almost irreparable. 



The water used in the boiler of the steam engine was hauled in 

 wagons from the Pecos river, a distance of eight miles. It carries an 

 enormous quantity of angular sand and finely comminuted gypsum in. 

 suspension, and causes by these means the utmost trouble in getting 

 the boiler free from the solid and rapid incrustation accumulated on* 

 the flues. 



The gypsum and sand t3ombined form a crust as hard as flint, and. 

 so firmly attached to the iron that it was necessary to take down the 

 boiler and chip it off with chisels. If left more than six days it be- 

 came at least half an inch thick. The sand also completely cut to 

 pieces and honeycombed the valves and plungers of the supply pump 

 until it became altogether useless, and I was obliged to send to Gal- 

 veston for another. 



The water of the Pecos also contains a large quantity of free acids, 

 which absolutely devoured the iron, until the boiler a few days ago* 

 became completely useless, and I have again been compelled to send 

 to Galveston. At least two-thirds of the thickness of the boiler iron 

 was eaten up by the acids, and iron nuts half an inch thick crumbled 

 in the hands like dried clay. The plunger of the steam chest is also 

 completely honeycombed ; and wherever iron has been exposed to the 

 action of this water, especially in a boiling state, it has been greatly 

 injured. 



Such in brief are the difficulties, mechanical and physical, which 

 have so long embarrassed the work, and which I fear it will be im- 

 possible to surmount at a place so remote from every convenience, and 

 where it is so nearly impracticable to replace any part of the necessary 

 machinery. 



With very heavy cast iron tubeg and driving apparatus it might be 

 practicable to complete these borings; but the transportation alone of 

 such heavy articles, in quantities sufficient for the object, would involve 

 an expense beyond the reach of any appropriation Congress will ever 

 make for such a purpose. 



This, however, is but one of many points had in view for these 

 experiments when I left Washington, and I do not doubt I shall have 

 much better success elsewhere, as tliis plain stands alone in its pecu- 

 liar character. 



In the boring, so far as we have carried it, abundant springs of 

 water have been passed through, (four or five in number,) but they 

 do not rise to the surface, and their existence is rather a disadvantage 

 to the work, as they greatly increase the rapidity of the falling in of 

 soft strata. 



My opinions about the certainty of getting water to overflow the 

 surface are by no means changed; but the boring operations are diffi- 

 cult far beyond my anticipations, and lead to the conclusion that, 



