EL PASO. 145 
perty to keep up the rates. The Government, how- 
ever, had given me authority, in cases of necessity, to 
call upon the United States Commissaries of Subsist- 
ence for provisions; and hence the immediate wants 
of my party were provided for by the officers of this 
post. Corn and fodder for the animals, however, had 
to be purchased at the market prices. 
General Garcia Condé, the Mexican Commissioner, 
had not yet reached El Paso, though intelligence had 
been received here that he was at the city of Chihua- 
hua; word was therefore sent to him at once, that the 
United States Commission had arrived. 
In order to make myself familiar with the country 
in the vicinity of El Paso before the Commission 
should enter upon its duties, I made an excursion, im 
which I was accompanied by Major Van Horne and 
several gentlemen of my party, over the mountain 
ridge which crosses the Rio Grande a few miles above 
the town. We passed up on the Mexican side of the: 
river, crossing over to the American side at White's: 
anch, a course which we followed in returning. About 
a mile above the town is a fall in the river, where a 
dam has been constructed, and the water raised about 
ten feet, for the purpose of irrigating the valley 
below. There are two grist mills here, one on the 
Mexican, the other on the American side of the river. 
For the distance of eight miles, as it is called, above 
El Paso, there is no bottom land, the river breaking 
its way through the mountains the whole distance. 
The range on the eastern side, called the El Paso 
_ Mountains, rises to a height of about one thousand five 
~ hundred feet. It is a continuation of the Sierra de los 
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