SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 145 
which has been abundant for many miles along the tracks, continues 
to be the most noticeable element in the sparse vegetation. It 
blooms in June and early July. 
Lordsburg is a busy town with local stock and mining interests, 
and a Government airport, which is extensively utilized throughout _ 
the year. A branch line leads to the mining com- 
ae munity of Clifton, Ariz., and another branch goes 
Population 2,069. southeast to Hachita, on the south line of the railroad. 
New Orleans 1,336 Lordsburg lies just north of the north end of the 
miles. . 
irregular group of ridges, buttes, and peaks of the 
Pyramid Mountains, in which there are several active mines. One 
of these, known as ‘‘the 85,” is in sight as the train approaches Lords- 
burg. It lies in a cove at the foot of the mountains and ever since 
its start, in 1885, has been productive of gold, silver, and copper. The 
mineral veins cut volcanic rocks, and some of them crop out as dark 
“reefs,’’ which are conspicuous in the hill slopes. There are other 
mines farther south, and Gold Hill, 14 miles northeast of Lordsburg, 
has long been a producer of gold from quartz veins in the old crys- 
talline rocks. The Pyramid Mountains consist of an extensive suc- 
cession of igneous flows and intrusions, apparently of Tertiary age. 
The greater part of the range is andesite of porphyritic texture, but 
there are masses of diorite porphyry in the western part of the mining 
district, near Lordsburg. Considerable brecciation has occurred in 
parts of the area, and there are many mineralized veins, some of which 
have yielded a large amount of ore containing silver, lead, copper, 
and gold. The Lordsburg district furnishes 60 per cent of the New 
Mexico production of gold, also considerable copper, mostly from the 
deeper workings. The total metal production from the district is 
estimated at $18,000,000. All the ore is shipped to smelters at El 
Paso, Tex., and Douglas, Ariz. The deepest shaft is 1,700 feet deep. 
Passing around the end of the foothills of the Pyramid Mountains 
west of Lordsburg and between a group of outlying hills of lava, the 
railroad deflects southwestward to reach Steins Pass. It crosses the 
bare wide level-floored basin of the Playa de los Pinos, which contains 
two large ‘‘alkali’’ flats north of the railroad. Sometimes these 
flats are covered by water, but usually they present a glistening sur- 
face of crystalline salts, often giving rise to striking mirages. This 
basin is a northern extension of the Animas Valley (see p. 168), so 
deeply filled with detritus that the rise to the divide at Steins is only 
about 200 feet. 
Lordsburg. 
+ 
10 One of these hills a mile west of | Pyra siding are due to a sheet of lava 
Lordsburg, south of the railroad, con- | capping volcanic tuff (Tertiary). This 
ists of quartzite faulted against igneous | rock is a latite carrying phenocrysts of 
rocks and probably of Lower Creta- | plagioclase and hornblende in a fine- 
ceous age. The hills just northwest of | grained groundmass rich in orthoclase. 
