116 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
group or coming from a fault fissure that appears to cross the valley 
in that vicinity. About 31 miles to the south, on the bank of the 
Rio Grande, are the Indian Hot Springs, a noted resort which utilizes 
the hot water for remedial purposes. 
Near Etholen siding there are many interesting geologic features. 
Not far north is the huge cone of the Sierra Blanca, rising nearly 
tein. 2,200 feet above the adjoining valley. Near its south 
slope passes a west-northwest fault, on the south or 
Elevation 4,754 feet. : ‘ a ° 
Population 28.* upthrown side of which limestone of Permian age 
sates Orleans 1,100 abuts against strata of the Washita group, which 
: constitute the platform on which the mass of Sierra 
Blanca rises. In the gap on the north side of the peak a large variety 
of interesting fossils have been found in these strata. 
The Quitman Mountains are very conspicuous southwest of the 
railroad near Etholen. They consist of a mass of intrusive granite at 
the north and south ends and a huge central intrusion of quartz 
syenite. These rocks are cut by dikes of diabase and augite porphyry. 
The granite and syenite intrusions have lifted and deformed the 
Cretaceous strata over an area of considerable extent. A most 
interesting example of the alteration of sedimentary rocks by an 
igneous intrusive mass is presented on the north side of the Quitman 
Mountains 5 miles south-southwest of Etholen siding. Here part of 
the limestone (Finlay) has been changed to marble by the heat of 
the intrusive quartz syenite, and a great zone of garnet (grossularite) 
has been developed at the contact. There is also considerable vesu- 
vianite and actinolite. Sandy beds are altered to hornfels, and much 
silica has been deposited, together with iron, Manganese, copper, 
zinc, and silver minerals. Many of these minerals are incrusted with 
chalcedony. The principal materials added to the sedimentary rocks 
are silica and iron oxide, much of the latter in the form of hematite. 
There are many mineral deposits in the altered rocks near the Quit- 
man Mountains which have been extensively prospected but have not 
yet developed economic importance. Besides iron, lead, copper, and 
silver, small amounts of nickel, tungsten, uranium, gold, and molyb- 
denum have been reported. 
In the small ridge west of Etholen are limestones and shales of 
formerly productive. Nearly all the surfaces in this general region 
are bare and rocky, and the vegetation has the wide spacing charac- 
ristic - In the valleys and on gentler slopes, however, 
there is considerable grass and other forage for stock. 
_ The knobs just northwest of Etholen consist of a conglomerate 
(probably the same as the Campagrande formation of Richardson, the 
