GENERAL REPORT. 19 
the town of Santa Fé are covered with Abies concolor, Pinus ponderosa, and 
Pinus flexilis. Their summits, however, not reaching above timber-line, are 
destitute of the peculiarly alpine flora so characteristic of the Colorado 
mountain-tops. Back of Santa F¢, the low hills also are abundantly covered 
with the Pition Pine and dwarf Juniperus Virginiana. The extremes of 
heat and cold within a period of twenty-four hours, though still plainly 
marked here, are not so decided as on the great American plains further 
north, and this would appear to have something to do with the Cactacea, 
Chenopodiaceae, and Nyctaginacee taking the place of the more hairy Astragali 
we find there (to the north). 
From Santa Fé we moved toward the Rio Grande, which we struck at 
the Indian town of San Felipe. The intervening country was of the semi- 
desert character, and furnished a scanty picking for the small bands of 
cattle that roamed over it. 
The valley of the Rio Grande, however dreary its appearance, gave 
evidence of an abounding fertility where irrigation is possible; I might 
almost have said an inexhaustible fertility, for at some of the Indian farms 
we could see where year after year they had raised fair crops without 
either rotation in crop or any attempt at restoration to the soil of the ele- 
ments of fertility they were so constantly removing. The combination of 
lime, sand, and marl from the eroded country above and back probably 
gave the explanation of continued success under such soil-impoverishing 
farming. This belt, however, was at best a narrow one, for the immediate 
hills weré as usual covered with a growth of sage-brush and Atriplex. It 
was interesting to note here, as elsewhere, the protective influence of vege- 
tation-on the face of the country. Facing the mouths of the ravines, which 
ran toward the river, were here and there elevated spots, whilst all around 
evident traces of recent washes in the soil were apparent. The elevations 
owed their existence to the growth of Atriplex and Artemisia, the roots of 
which entangled, or rather retained the sandy soil about them. I have had 
frequent occasion to note the same thing, especially in California. The com- 
mon Ailanthus glandulosus, which has become so much of an “eye-sore” on 
our Eastern coast, might almost certainly be introduced into that region as 
a protection along the irrigating channels and elsewhere, where some such 
