TO EL PASO. 139 
_ the Pacific, pursuing a westerly course along the 32d 
parallel, near El Paso del Norte, there is no stream of 
a higher grade than a small creek. I know of none 
but the San Pedro and the Santa Cruz, the latter but 
a rivulet losing itself in the sands near the Gila, 
the other but a diminutive stream scarcely reaching 
_ that river. At the head waters of the Concho, 
_ therefore, begins that great desert region, which, with 
_ no interruption save a limited valley or bottom land 
along the Rio Grande, and lesser ones near the small 
courses mentioned, extends over a district embracing 
sixteen degrees of longitude, or about a thousand 
_ miles, and is wholly unfit for agriculture. It is a deso- 
_ late barren waste, which can never be rendered useful 
_ for man or beast, save for a public highway. It is 
_ destitute of forests, except in the defiles and gorges of 
_ the higher mountains or on their summits. Along the 
valley of the Rio Grande, which is from one and a half 
_ to two miles in width, there grow large cotton wood 
_ trees and a few mezquit; but between this river and 
_ the north fork.of Brady’s Creek there is no timbered 
land. 
‘ The country is well adapted est a wagon road, and 
_ equally so for a railway, as all desert regions are, unless 
_ they are sandy. From Fredericksburg, all the way to 
the Rio Grande, there is a natural road, which as a 
whole is better than half the roads in the United States 
west of the Mississippi. Very little has. been done to 
this road of nearly 600 miles to render it what it is; 
and a little labor where the streams are crossed, with a 
bridge across the Pecos, which could be constructed 
with great ease and at a small expense, would make the 
