230 GEOLOGY OF TRANS-PECOS TEXAS. 



There are numerous such bogus locations, which have neither been surveyed 

 by the authorized surveyor, nor recorded in the Land Office, nor the assess 

 ment work done, nor the cash payments made on them. There is nobody in 

 the mineral districts to watch and prevent such work, even if it were prohib- 

 ited by law. The required annual payment of $50 on each claim location 

 would certainly benefit the school or University funds if locations were made 

 under the law; but under the circumstances very few locations will be made. 

 Most of the alternate sections, as well as larger tracts of school and Univer- 

 sity land, in West Texas in their present condition can not be sold at a rea- 

 sonable price; they can not be rented out as farming or grazing land; they 

 therefore bring no revenue through taxation, and they are, and evidently 

 will remain, dead capital until the mineral resources are developed in the 

 mountains, and water found or provided for in the flats; and the present 

 mining law should be made as favorable as is possible to secure this develop- 

 ment. But this is not the only drawback. 



The titles to some of the lands of West Texas are clouded by large Mexi- 

 can or Spanish grants, covering hundreds, and some of them (as, for instance, 

 the Ronguillo grant) thousands of square miles of the best mineral and pros- 

 pective farming lands. Prospectors who are able and who are willing to 

 submit to the terms of the mining law are afraid to risk time and money 

 without knowing on whose land they are locating, or which party, State, 

 railroad, or grantee, has a right to grant them the rights. 



In other parts of the Trans-Pecos region, where there are no Spanish or 

 Mexican grants clouding the titles, the prospector can, in very few cases only, 

 be perfectly certain whether his claim is located on State on railroad land, even 

 though the location be made by the authorized surveyor, who knows or pro- 

 fesses to know the lines. The terms which are offered by the railroad are 

 for the most part so exacting that in fact it is almost impossible for a pros- 

 pector to accept them. Thus, instead of offering sufficient inducements to 

 secure a greater amount of prospecting, everything is against the prospector, 

 and helps to prevent the development of the mineral resources of the State. 



The scarcity of water, also a drawback to the development of the mineral 

 and other resources of West Texas, can be overcome by storage reservoirs, 

 and will be partially overcome by the water found in deeper mines. The 

 scarcity of mining timber is not severely felt, for little timbering is required 

 in the solid material of the western mountains. 



The scarcity of fuel is a drawback, the greater because it prevents the 

 utilization of the poorer grade of ores which can not stand shipment, and also 

 in less degree on account of its need for use under steam boilers for hoisting, 

 pumping, and ventilating machinery. But poorer ores might be stored until 

 the coal deposits of Texas are sufficiently explored and developed to furnish 



