30 BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mountains. — The general trend of the mountains is from north- 

 west to southeast. Those forming continuous ranges have the char- 

 acter of knife blades or hatchet shapes thrust up from the plains. 

 Some have irregular or pyramidal forms, and such are usually of vol- 

 canic origin. These mountains are seldom well forested, because of 

 the steepness of their slopes, from which the soil is blown or washed 

 almost as fast as it is deposited, leaving the bare rocks, with vegeta- 

 tion only clinging to the crevices, benches, and hollows. 



At El Paso the Eio Grande winds between the Franklin Mountains 

 of Texas and the Sierra de Muleros of Mexico. Then for 145 kilo- 

 meters (80 miles) to the westward the Boundary Line crosses a desert 

 plain, on which isolated desert ranges are visible in the distance the 

 Floridas (altitude 2,224 meters or 7,295 feet [Wheeler]) and Tres 

 Hermanas (altitude 1,742 meters or 5,715 feet), north of the line; in 

 New Mexico, the Boca Grande, and other desert ranges to the south- 

 ward, in Chihuahua, Mexico. 



Between the Mimbres Valley and the meridian section of the line 

 are the Carrizalillo Hills (altitude 1,617 meters or 5,305 feet) and 

 Boca Grande Mountains (altitude 2,295 meters or 7,530 feet), and 

 in the " Panhandle " of New Mexico, the Little and Big Hachitas, 

 the Dog Mountains, the Animas, and the San Luis (practically the 

 Sierra Madre) , of which the Hachita Grande rises to the elevation of 

 2,545 meters (8,350 feet), the Animas 2,677 meters (8,783 feet), and 

 the San Luis to 2,480 meters (8,136 feet). 



Crossing into Arizona, the Chiricahua Mountains (altitude about 

 £,750 meters or 9,000 feet) lie wholly north of the Boundary Line, and 

 the Pedrogosa (altitude 1,990 meters or 6,529 feet) and Mule Moun- 

 tains (altitude 1,888 meters or 6,194 feet) west of the San Ber- 

 nardino-Valley, almost all north of the line. East of the San Pedro 

 River are the San Jose Mountains (altitude 2,541 meters or 8,337 

 feet), in Sonora, Mexico, their summit, 5 miles south of the inter- 

 national line, and west of the San Perdo the Huachuca Mountains 

 rise to 2,887 meters or 9,472 feet, and belong to the United States. 



In the loop formed by the first portion of the Santa Cruz River, 

 between the San Rafael Valley and Nogales, are the Patagonia 

 Mountains (altitude 2,217 meters or 7,274 feet), which cross from 

 Arizona into Sonora; the Santa Rita and Santa Catalina mountains 

 being a considerable distance to the northward, in Arizona. Between 

 the Santa Cruz River and La Osa (Monuments Nos. 118 to 140), lie 

 the beautiful Pajaritos Mountains, traversed by the Boundary Line 

 and having an altitude of 1,450 meters or 4,757 feet. Between these 

 mountains and the Coast Range of California are several low desert 

 ranges, of which the Tule (highest point on boundary, 618 meters or 

 2,028 feet) and Gila Mountains (highest point on boundary, 644 

 meters or 2,113 feet) are the highest. These mountains of the Tule, 



