SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 85 
feet in all. West of Sanderson the canyon is ascended on a moder- 
ate grade, and as the slope of the valley and the easterly dip of the 
beds are about the same in rate and direction the succession of 
strata is uniform for several miles past Gavilan and Emerson sid- 
ings. The adjoining highlands, capped by Georgetown limestone, are 
so deeply incised by side draws and canyons that but little of the 
original plateau surface remains. The rocky slopes support a scanty 
growth of desert plants, and there is more or less mesquite growing in 
the gravelly soil of the valley floor. Just west of Emerson siding is 
the deep boring referred to on page 84. In places west of Emerson a 
diminution of dip causes some of the lower beds of the limestone suc- 
cession to pass beneath the bottom of the valley, and the limestone 
walls become less high and precipitous. 
In the region southwest of Sanderson and south of Alpine the Rio 
Grande makes a great deflection to the south, and the country here 
embraced by the river is known as the Big Bend. It is a very thinly 
populated region of high mountains and many deep canyons, salable 
those which the river has cut through some of the plateaus and 
ridges. One of the most notable of these is the Santa Helena Canyon, 
near Terlingua, which has very high, precipitous walls of limestone of 
the Comanche series. In the earlier days the Big Bend country 
harbored many outlaws, and large numbers of cattle were smuggled 
across the Rio Grande at fords and other crossings. It was also a 
favorite region for the Indians, mainly the Apache Lipans. These 
people utilized the abundant maguey and sotol plants, baking the 
buds of the flower stalk in ovens of heated rocks and fermenting the 
juice into an alcoholic beverage of considerable potency. Long prior 
to these Indians there was an earlier race which left traces of their 
homes and numerous pictures on cliffs. 
There are many remarkable plants in the Big Bend country and 
other parts of western Texas. Resurrection plants, or “flor de pefia” 
(Selaginella lepidophylla), occur in large numbers on some of the rocky 
surfaces; many of them are sold as curiosities. When dry they roll 
into a nestlike ball, but when wet they unfold into a mass of fernlike 
fronds of a rich green color. The Mexicans use a decoction of this 
plant as a cure for colic and indigestion. One of the common weeds 
of the region, called trompillo (trome-pee’yo; Solanum elaeagnifolium), 
with violet flowers and a berry like a small black marble, is much 
used by the Mexicans for curdling milk in making cheese. Another 
rather notable plant is a small, low cactus, Lophophora williamsi, of 
radish shape, called peyote by the Mexicans and Indians. It bears 2 
pale-pink flower in the early summer which develops into a greénish 
berry i in a woolly sack, formerly much chewed by Indians, especially 
in ceremonial prayers for the sick; some alkaloid content has a mildly 
intoxicating effect, so that it has been called “white whisky.” Many 
