228 GEOLOGY OF TRANS-PECOS TEXAS. 



chase or lease. The well at Sierra Blanca is 970 feet deep, and the water 

 has to be lifted 900 feet. In Van Horn, the four wells are nearly 700 feet 

 deep; in Valentine, about 1200 feet; in Haskell, 2200 feet deep; at Torbert 

 a well under construction has not even reached the rock at 1000 feet. There- 

 fore no farmer or stockraiser can invest the amount necessary for boring 

 such wells and keeping up steam pumps for single or even half a dozen 

 alternate sections, as there would arise complications on account of fence, 

 way, and water rights with the alternate sections. There must be means de- 

 vised by which larger tracts can be gotten in a single block before much 

 progress can be made. But aside from the prospective farming lands and 

 their eventual irrigation, complications will and must arise on mineral lands 

 if the locations have to be made and surveyed from far distant starting 

 points, as at present from the frontier of New Mexico, or from the doubtful 

 corners now in existence. And as the price for surveying and registering a 

 claim is small, it may be expected that the locations will be made from the 

 nearest, which perhaps is the least reliable, starting point. 



In the location of grazing or farming land in the far west, as long as no 

 springs or other sources of water are concerned, ten or even one hundred 

 feet are of no consequence at present, and probably will not be of any value 

 for the next fifty, may be for the next hundred years; but in mineral districts 

 one hundred, or even ten, feet may represent hundreds of thousands of dol- 

 lars, and the value of a mine may be at stake if a line is ten or twenty 

 feet from the place where it was supposed to be at the time when the loca- 

 tion was made. 



Veins or lodes on or near supposed section lines between the State and 

 railroad lands, if developed to valuable mines, will invariably lead to serious 

 complications with the State and railroad, or between the State and railroad. 



If, however, the alternate sections were blocked, and the corners of such 

 blocks finally located, then from points inside the blocks correct claim sur- 

 veys could be made, even cheaper than for $20, and innumerable lawsuits, 

 which are unavoidable under the present system, can be prevented. 



DEVELOPMENT. 



While Western Texas has been regarded as perfectly valueless, and its 

 value doubted even now, because it is not settled by farmers and stockraisers, 

 and the fact is that it is not and will not be fit for farming and stockraising 

 without water reservoirs and irrigation, there are in the mountains mineral 

 districts of uncommon value. The question arises, why have these resources 

 not been developed? 



This can be answered by simply hinting to the circumstances as they ex- 



