704 TRANS-PECOS TEXAS. 



and by blocking such numbers of sections as will not only make improvements 

 possible, but invite private parties and corporations to incur reasonable ex- 

 penses and even risks. 



These flats, though covered like the hill and mountain slopes with the rich 

 gamma and other nutritious grasses, can not be utilized to even their approxi- 

 mate capacity for cattle raising as long as the present conditions exist. Arte- 

 sian wells are out of the question. The scarcity of springs, creeks, ponds, in 

 short the scarcity of water, in Trans-Pecos Texas is so well known that it has 

 become, I might say, proverbial. The accumulation and storage of rain 

 water in reservoirs is the only way to make the utilization of the flats pos- 

 sible for agricultural purposes or stock raising. Water storage is also re- 

 quired for the successful working of the mining resources of Western Texas. 

 Every experieaced miner will know and must acknowledge the fact that with 

 few exceptions even very rich leads carry, besides high grade ores, a large 

 quantity of lower graded material, which can not stand shipping or which 

 can not be directly worked on account of the proportion of bulk to the value, 

 which, however, if properly concentrated, will pay well if shipped or smelted. 



In most cases concentration by water can be effected more successfully and 

 cheaper than in any other way. So it becomes an undeniable fact that the 

 development of the resources of West Texas (that is of an area of about thirty- 

 five thousand square miles), be it farming, stock raising, or mining, can not 

 be expected unless water is provided. The only way to provide water is to 

 .build storage reservoirs. This can only be done by larger areas of land be- 

 ing thrown together by abandoning the alternate section system and blocking 

 larger areas together. The blocking of the land will also facilitate correct 

 surveys, particularly since the correct location of the 105th meridian and a 

 number of astronomical points are reliably established by an astronomer, and 

 by a United States Coast Survey party triangulating along the Rio Grande 

 from New Mexico toward the Gulf. 



By establishing starting points in the blocks the mineral surveys can be 

 correctly and more cheaply located than from far remote points, the location 

 of which is very doubtful, a fact which no expert surveyor will deny. 



DEVELOPMENT. 



Numerous indications, outcrops, and prospect holes are found through the 

 mountain ranges of Trans-Pecos Texas, but nearly all are abandoned, like the 

 diggings in the Quitman, Carrizo, Sierra Diabolo, and Sierra Blanca districts, 

 for the reasons explained in my preliminary statement (part of Report of 

 Geological Survey of Texas for 1889) under the headings "Agriculture and 

 Irrigation," page 228, and "Development," beginning at the same page. 



