REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. lxxiii 



these will, however, vary greatly, bat must in many places be too 

 great to permit their use for any other purpose than the manufacture 

 of salt. 



While the general dip of the strata is northwest, and under suitable 

 conditions the outcropping edges of the eastern sandstones would prove 

 a source of supply to the country west, the rapid rise of the country 

 forbids the hope of securing flowing water from that source. It may 

 be, however, that the conditions of the southern border may be re- 

 peated in greater or less degree by the elevation along the the northern 

 border, and this is probable. The only other catchment area which 

 can be looked for must be in the elevated country beyond the Pecos, 

 where these strata again appear. Such a basin is found in the valley 

 of the Guadaloupe Mountains, stretching southward to Van Horn. In 

 this deep valley, filled with eroded material to a depth of 800 feet as 

 is shown by the wells at Yan Horn, we find the outcropping of the 

 Carboniferous sandstone, which dipping gently to the southeast carries 

 this water so that it is reached at Toyah, fifty miles distant, at 800 

 feet, and there yields a fine flow. This water could also be found at 

 Pecos City, were it worth while boring to a depth sufficient to reach 

 it, but that city is supplied with water from the artesian wells which 

 find their source of supply in beds of the same horizon, seemingly, as 

 the Trinity Sands. The water at Toyah, like all that so far found in 

 the Central Basin, is salty, and the character of the rock materials and 

 the included minerals lead to the conclusion that fresh water can not 

 be had from artesian wells in the Central Basin, except within very 

 limited areas, which, from local topographic causes, might yield such 

 water at moderate depths. As yet no such localities are known. 



In the mountain region the prospects for artesian water are not good, 

 for reasons which have been fully given in the description of the 

 country. The water is collected in the great valleys of erosion, and 

 must be reached by wells 800 to 2000 feet deep, and lifted the greater 

 part of the distance by pumps. These are the general conditions. 

 Those of separate localities which may or may not prove favorable 

 have not yet been examined. 



This brief statement of the character, extent, conditions, and con- 

 tents of the various formations, which taken as a whole form the basis 

 of the life and wealth and culture of the Lone Star State, is compiled 

 for the most part from the results of the work done by myself and 

 the members of the Survey during the fifteen months of its existence. 



