GENERAL REPORT. 19 



the town of Santa Fe are covered with Abies concolor, Finns 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 Fc, the low hills also are abundantly covered 

 with the Pifion 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 Cactacecc, 

 Chenopodiacea 1 , and Nyetaginacece taking the place of the more hairy Astragali 

 we find there (to the north). 



From Santa F4 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 were 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 Ailantlms 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 



