434 GEOLOGY OF NORTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



however, is at the base of the Cretaceous, and Duro is at the highest point 

 of outcrop of the Cretaceous rocks. The distance between these two points 

 on a straight line is about eighty miles north 64° east. 



From Duro to the western edge of the Plains at Quito, a distance of about 

 fifty miles south 70° west, the dip of the surface is about ten feet to the mile; 

 and to the Fecos River, a distance of about sixty-five miles, the dip of the 

 surface is about the same, and the line is in the same direction. The highest 

 point of the Staked Plains along the line of the Texas and Pacific Railway is 

 at Duro, which is thirty-two hundred feet above sea level. Big Springs is 

 twenty-four hundred feet, and the Pecos River is twenty-five hundred and 

 eighty-five feet above sea level. 



At Duro the dip of the surface is across the upper part of the Cretaceous, 

 at Quito it is on the Triassic, and at the Pecos it is on the Red Beds that 

 have not yet been determined. From the Pecos River westward along the 

 line of the railroad the surface of the country rises very rapidly in a distance 

 of seventy miles, or from the Pecos River to Boracho, the elevation being 

 twenty -three hundred feet, or thirty- three feet to the mile. At Boracho the 

 formation is Cretaceous, which dips to the southeast. It has been thought 

 that the artesian water at Pecos City was in the Cretaceous and had its source 

 to the westward along the base of the mountains, and that the same bed of 

 water bearing sands would be found under the Staked Plains, but it will be 

 seen at a glance that such could not be the case. If a line be drawn from 

 the base of the Cretaceous at Big Springs to Duro, and that line protracted 

 across the Pecos, it will reach the base of the Cretaceous in the vicinity of 

 Boracho, but Pecos City would be over fourteen hundred feet below that line ; 

 or if a line be drawn with the line of the dip of the country from Boracho to 

 the Pecos River, and that line protracted eastward, it will pass beneath the 

 Cretaceous beds on the eastward. And then it is known that there is no 

 Cretaceous strata from Quito to the Pecos Valley, but the Triassic comes in; 

 so any water that might be in the Cretaceous formation west of the Pecos 

 would not be found west of the Staked Plains, because the Pecos River has 

 cut entirely through the Cretaceous strata. 



More recently I have thought that the artesian water at Pecos City was 

 confined probably to the valley of the Pecos, and was probably found in the 

 deposits of a more recent age than the Cretaceous. 



The following is a section of a well in Pecos City, given to me by Mr. Cox, 

 who drilled the well in his own yard: 



1. Soil lfoot. 



2. "White clay 20 feet. 



3. Quicksand 2 feet. 



4. Soft sandstone 50 feet. 



5. Stiff y«llow clay 20 feet. 



