76 



FROM MOUTH OF DEYIL S RIVER TO EL PASO DEL NORTE. 



Tinderbrush 



armed with thorns. Along this portion of the route^ we found plenty of water in tanks at the 

 heads of the ravines. There were^ also, manj fine springs. One in particular is noticeable for its 

 heauty ; falling over a precipice of forty feet, its waters were emptied into a large basin worn 



out of the solid rock. 



rocks, testify to their rude attempt 



many 



The last ten miles kept gradually descending towards the river ; occasionally the wagons had to 

 be let down steep descents by means of ropes. Our road finally emerged upon a low flat plain 

 about twenty feet above the level of the Eio Grande. .We had, fortunately, struck the only 

 place, as our examinations afterwards proved, where we could possibly reach the river with our 

 wagons ; the route was a circuitous one, in all 140 miles from the Pecos springs. The initial 

 point of our work was found to be a little over forty miles above ; the surveying party of the 

 previous year had there suspended operations in consequence of the rugged character of the 

 country, and had returned to Eagle Pass through Santa Eosa and San Fernando, Mexico. It 

 was next to an impossibility to approach the river for the first twenty miles of the survey, this 

 section being literally cut up by deep arroyos ; steep hills, covered with rocks of igneous origin, 

 intervene and jut Into the water's edge. The river here is very tortuous. From the end of 

 this section, the country undergoes a great change ; the formation is limestone, and the river 

 forces its way through a deep canon nearly twenty miles in length, its banks being composed of 



) 



Lipan Crossing — View down the river. 



resembl 



many 



make detours of twenty-five and thirty miles 



in following its course 



_-_^ « , T , ^ — "^ ^"xii^j xxiiit;»j lu oruer 10 advance our 



wot!^_a few hundred feet. The plain where the main party encamped, and where we first struct 

 the nver, made a gradual descent to the water. Here was the first break in the canon, and the 



