60 



LOWER RIO BRAVO. 



cm 



course of tlie river, is only twenty-two 



mi 



distant by the road. It contains about 



three thousand inhabitants. The houses are mostly of wood and well built. The town has 

 sprung up since the Mexican war^ and owes its prosperity chiefly to the contraband trade with 



Mexico. 



Matamoras 



number 



Old Fort Brown, Texas. 



j» 



Below Brownsville, and 



mil 



with old Fort Brown at the 



farthest extremity of the puhlic grounds. In the middle of the parade ground, unmarked 



monument, lie the remains of the gallant officer 



now hears his name, 

 fifty feet. The 



measure 



mean 



Fahrenheit 



i50, and ending 1855, was 73° 

 annually 33.65 inches. These 



from 



y 



longe 



They would seem to indicate an abundance of rain 



for all the purposes of agriculture, and we should ho at a loss to understand the arid character ot 

 the country on both sides of the river, were it not that the tables give us the solution ; we there 

 find that more than one-half the rain falls in the autumn, which Is followed by a winter during 



^ 



which the thermometer freq^uently falls below the freezing^ulnt, Onc-fonrth the whole quan- 

 tity of rain falls in a single month, and it tery often happens that no rain whatever falls m 

 the months of May, June, and July. Consequently^ throughout the whole valley of the Kio 

 Bravo and its tributaries, we seldom see corn si^wine excent in the bottoms, subject to over- 



