92 LLANO E STAC ADO. 



acterized by the same peculiarities, with the water issuing from it inva- 

 riably bitter and unpalatable. 



The Arkansas, Canadian, Brazos, Colorado, and Pecos rivers, pass 

 through the formation, and a similar taste is imparted to the waters of 

 all. Several of these also have their sources in the same elevated table- 

 lands as Red river, and where they make their exit from this plateau 

 their beds are confined to vast sluices or canons, the sides of which rise 

 very abruptly to an enormous height above the surface of the water. 

 The barren mesa, in which these streams take their rise, extends from 

 the Canadian river, in a southerly course, to near the confluence of the 

 Pecos with the Rio Grande, some four hundred miles, between the 3 2d 

 and 37 th parallels of north latitude. It is in places nearly two hundred 

 miles in width, and is embraced within the 101st and 104th meridians 

 of west longitude. The approximate elevation of this plain above the 

 sea, as determined with the barometer, is two thousand four hundred 

 and fifty feet. It is much elevated above the surrounding country, very 

 smooth and level, and spreads out in every direction as far as the eye 

 can penetrate, without a tree, shrub, or any other herbage to intercept 

 the vision. The traveller, in passing over it, sees nothing but one vast, 

 dreary, and monotonous waste of barren solitude. It is an ocean of 

 desert prairie, where the voice of man is seldom heard, and where no 

 living being permanently resides. The almost total absence of water 

 causes all animals to shun it : even the Indians do not venture to cross 

 it except at two or three points, where they find a few small ponds of 

 water. I was told in New Mexico that, many years since, the Mexicans 

 marked out a route with stakes across this plain, where they found 

 water ; and hence the name by which it is known throughout Mexico, 

 of "El Llano Estacado," or the " Staked Plain." 



