230 EL PASO 
But until there is some other mode of transporting the 
copper to market, than by wagons for a distance of 
nearly a thousand miles, it will hardly pay to work 
them. There is no longer a market in the city of Mex- 
ico, as other mines have been found much nearer. It 
now costs twenty cents a pound to transport goods 
from the coast at Indianola; but as the wagons go 
down empty, the owners would, no doubt, be glad to 
carry the copper at half price. Labor is cheap and 
abundant in Mexico. At El Paso, Mexican laborers 
could be had for 624 cents a day, they finding them- 
selves; but men could doubtless be procured at even 
a less price. They require only the most simple food; 
flour, beans, and a very little meat will satisfy their 
wants. 
The district about the Copper Mines might be 
made to produce all the food needed for a mining 
population. There is no valley or arable land close 
to the mines; but eight miles to the eastward the 
Mimbres winds its way through the mountains, and 
has in many places a broad valley or bottom, which 
could be easily irrigated, and made to produce large 
crops. Hither we sent our cattle and mules, and in 
the driest time found an abundance of grass and 
water. Within two or three miles there are fine 
valleys, where, I doubt not, corn might be grown 
without irrigation, as is the case in some of the moun- 
tainous districts of Mexico; for it often rains here, 
when the plains below, but ten or fifteen miles distant, 
are parched with drought. We were not prepared 
to try the experiment; but, from the appearance of 
the soil, the, richness of the grass, and general exube- 
