88 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
The a gies was built through to Albuquerque in 1880 and the line to 
Deming was opened in the spring of 1881. For some time before the 
building of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, now the western part of 
the Santa Fe system, this line by way of Deming and thence over 
the Southern Pacific was the principal outlet to the Pacific coast. 
There are but few mines in the vicinity of Albuquerque, although 
some small ones are worked for gold and other metals in the moun- 
tains to the east. Much of the product of the many ranches is 
brought to the city, and the wool from a wide area is received there, 
most of it passing through a scouring plant that handles 7,000,000 
pounds a year. The gross annual trade in sheep in the vicinity 
amounts to about $10,000,000. 
On. leaving Albuquerque the train goes nearly due south, passing 
Abajo (see shoot 14, p. 98) and continuing along the east side of the 
Rio Grande valley for about 10 miles. To the west 
Abajo. is a mesa of moderate height, capped by a thin sheet 
Elevation 4,045 feet. of lava which appears to have flowed from several 
Kansas City 920 miles. 
small cones rising above its surface some distance 
back on the mesa and in plain view from the trains. This lava lies 
on the Santa Fe marl, which occupies the Rio Grande valley through 
the greater part of central New Mexico. The railway crosses the 
Rio Grande 104 miles from Albuquerque and follows the west bank 
2 miles to Isleta. 
? This stream is one of variable volume; 
during the dry season it dwindles to a 
few small shallow channels and even be- 
comes dry at the surface in many places, 
but early in the summer and sometimes 
tion, so that but little of the rainfall is 
absorbed by the soil or passes under- 
ground; therefore it runs off rapidly into 
river. of the rainstorms, though 
at intervals later it carries great floods, 
which usually overflow most of the ad- 
joining lower lands. For a large part of 
the year the flow near Albuqu 
ages about 1,500 cubic feet a second, but 
in some years the average flow is less than 
500 cubic feetasecond. At times of flood 
the volume of water is 10,000 to 20,000 
cubic feet a second or even more. It is 
estimated 
(625 square miles) to a depth cof 3 feet, 
which is the Femomes ve oa for most 
irrigation in 
__ The great dilrences in ow are due to 
seep pons meprener, 
try drained by the river. The 
ace in 
; ban Ba very say cover af woe 
greater | n 
in the Rio Grande’! 
relatively short, are violent, and when 
the storm area is I: ast amount of 
water is carried into the river. 
Asarule, most of the water of river floods 
is lost, for the water used for irrigation is 
taken out at times when rivers are at the 
a storage dam near Elephant Butte, about 
140 miles below Albuquerque. The dam 
will be 1,200 feet long, 300 feet high, and 
215 feet wide at the base and will contain 
