BITUMINOUS COAL. 113 



road is found to Fort Smith, upon the navigable portion of the Arkansas, 

 which would be in a very direct course for St. Louis, and traverse one 

 of the most productive sections of the United States. 



The entire distance from Dona Ana to Fulton is about eight hundred 

 and fifty miles, and to Fort Smith nine hundred and four miles. The 

 road from El Paso connects, at the Sierra Waco, with the one described, 

 and is thirty miles shorter. 



Dona Ana being elevated four thousand feet above the tide-water 

 level, and Fulton and Fort Smith six hundred and sixty and six hundred 

 respectively, gives an average grade of less than four feet to the mile 

 over either road. These results, of course, can only be regarded as ap- 

 proximate estimates, which will be increased upon the undulatory por- 

 tions of the routes. The surface of the country, however, has a remark- 

 ably uniform dip to the east and south throughout nearly its whole 

 extent, and is, perhaps, better adapted by nature to the reception of a 

 railroad than almost any other which can be found. 



A glance at a map of the country will show that Red river, from the 

 point of its efflux upon the Delta of the Mississippi to Fulton, has a 

 northerly bearing ; that here it makes a sudden deflection of almost a 

 right- angle to the west, and maintains this course to its origin in the 

 "Llano estacado." 



The road alluded to, immediately after leaving Fulton, leads to an 

 elevated ridge, dividing the waters that flow into Red river from those 

 of the Sulphur and Trinity, and continues upon it, with but few devia- 

 tions from the direct course for El Paso and Dona Ana, to near the 

 Brazos river, a distance of three hundred and twenty miles. This 

 portion of the route has its locality in a country of surpassing beauty 

 and fertility, and possesses all the requisites for attracting and sustaining 

 a dense farming population. It is diversified with prairies and wood- 

 lands, affording a great variety of excellent timber, and is bountifully 

 watered with numerous spring-brooks, which flow off upon either side of 

 the ridge into the streams before mentioned. The crest of the ridge is 

 exceedingly smooth and level, and is altogether the best natural or arti- 

 ficial road I have ever travelled over for the same distance. 



After leaving this ridge the road crosses the Brazos near very exten- 

 sive fields of bituminous coal, (the only locality of this mineral, so far as 

 my knowledge extends, that has been discovered within two hundred 

 miles,) which burns readily with a clear flame, is made use of for fuel at 

 Fort Belknap, and is very superior in quality. 



From the Brazos the road skirts small affluents of that stream and 

 the Colorado for two hundred miles, through a country more undulating 

 8 



