VALLEY OF THE PECOS.—TABLE LANDS. 29 
it would occupy an important place in estimating the resources of the country. With facilities 
for reaching a market it would, in consequence of its immense extent and the remarkable ease 
of procuring it, be of great value. It gives a bitter taste to the waters of the Pecos and to 
some tributaries of the Colorado, but not sufficient to make them unpalatable. 
Valley of the Pecos.—The valley of the Pecos at the 32d parallel is from two to four miles in 
width, and is bordered on the east by the ** Llano Estacado,’’ and on the west by table-lands, 
which descend into it by very gentle inclinations. The bottom-lands are level and very fertile, 
and the river, with a general direction to the southeast, traverses the valley from side to side 
in thousands of sinuosities. 
Its bed has a very great inclination, which for thirty miles at least above the 32d parallel, 
and fifteen below it, occasions continuous rapids, and in many places falls of two or three feet. 
The soil of the level bottom-lands which occupy the bends of the river is, as will be seen from 
the tables, of great fertility, and the peculiar character of the stream, and the great inclination 
of its bed, offer unlimited facilities for irrigating the whole of the arable land of the valley. 
There is no timber, other than the mezquite and a sparse growth of dwarf cedar ; but fuel suffi- 
cient for a climate so mild and equable could easily be procured, as is the case along the valley 
of the Rio Grande, from the under-ground forests of mezquite-root on the table-lands. 
About fifteen miles below the 32d parallel the river begins to change its character, passing 
from its rocky bed and adepth of only two feet over the rapids, to a soft muddy bottom and fall- 
ing banks, and a depth probably at no place less than four or five feet, and in many places 
fifteen or twenty feet. Very little rain falls in the valley except during the months of July and 
August, and the same system of farming would be necessary as in the valley of the Rio Grande, 
The expense of irrigation is very much over-estimated by those not conversant with such matters, 
and as an evidence of this error it is only necessary to say that corn was worth but 60 cents a 
bushel in the valley of the Rio Grande, above El Paso, during the months of February and 
March, while in the Indian country, east of the Red river, and in the State of Arkansas, it 
commanded a price varying from 70 cents to $1 50. It must be remembered, also, that but an 
indifferent market for such products is offered in New Mexico, where the stock finds sufficient 
grazing during the whole year, and where it is entirely unusual to feed corn to animals. 
The only sales, or certainly four-fifths of the sales, are made to the government and for mili- 
tary purposes; and it seems reasonable to suppose that a larger demand, by stimulating compe- 
tition and increasing the crops, would considerably reduce the present prices. 
The valley of the Pecos is eminently adapted to this kind of cultivation, and with a demand 
could supply corn or wheat in almost unlimited abundance. In common with all the low lands 
in New Mexico, it is wonderfully favorable to the cultivation of the grape, and only needs pro- 
tection and a market to insure its settlement. 
The river, although very tortuous in its course, has always sufficient depth of water for small 
stern-wheeled steamers from its mouth to a point near the 32d parallel. 
Table-lands between the Pecos and the Rio Grande.—Passing from the valley of the Pecos 
along the northern bank of its tributary, the Delaware creek, we begin to ascend the elevated 
table-lands, towatds the east base of the Guadalupe mountains, The ascent is extremely gentle 
along the banks of the creek to its head, about thirty miles from the Pecos ; but from thence to 
the summit of the Guadalupe Pass, it is, although uniform, much more rapid. The valley of 
Delaware creek presents agricultural features altogether similar to those along the Pecos, and 
can be irrigated with almost equal facility. The creek itself is a succession of small lakes, ten or 
fifteen feet deep, connected by a swift-running stream, and as it ascends from the mouth the dwarf 
cedar becomes much more abundant along the ridges. It has its source in a limestone bluff about 
fifty feet above its valley, and issues from the base of the bluff from seven or eight springs, both 
pure and mineral. The largest of the pure springs bursts boldly out of the north side of the 
hill in a stream as large as a barrel, and after a course of probably fifty yards it unites with 
the small streams from the mineral springs. These springs, the analyses of which will be found 
