708 TRANS-PECOS TEXAS. 



The greater number of the analyses made of specimens taken from vein 

 outcrops and from the dumps of prospect holes show, if not better results, at 

 least traces of precious metals. Out of about one hundred and fifty of these 

 analyses, made for gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and iron, over seventy 

 show gold from one-half to two and one half ounces, float pieces even four 

 to five and seventeen and one-half ounces to the ton; copper from two to 

 forty-two per cent; silver from two ounces up to three hundred and seventy 

 ounces to the ton; lead up to sixty-nine per cent; zinc up to fifty six per cent. 



Besides these the analyses showed a trace of platinum and frequent traces 

 of tin. The specimens also contain uranium, molybdenum, wolframium, 

 nickel ; and some of the iron ores are equal to the best found in the State. 

 All these outcrops and prospects are in easy distances from the railways. 



The parts of Trans-Pecos Texas that I have examined up to this time are 

 also rich in other than metallic treasures. Building stones of the best quality 

 abound inside of two to eight miles of the railway. The porphyries of the 

 Quitman Mountains may be quarried in unlimited quantities. They are sus- 

 ceptible of a very fine polish, and may be selected in all shades of green, 

 purple, brownish, gray to nearly black, the colors pure or mottled and blended 

 into each other. 



Marbles of light and dark gray, yellow, pink, purple, some of them so finely 

 grained that they resemble the (erroneously so-called) Mexican onyx, abound 

 in the Sierra Diabolo in many colored, striped, and mottled varieties. These 

 marbles, as well as brown sandstone of good quality, color, and grain, are 

 only one to eight miles from the railway. 



A gypsum deposit exposed to more than two hundred feet of depth covers 

 several square miles close to the railway, and this gypsum, in the shape of 

 loose gypsum sand, selenite, granular gypsum (alabaster), can be adapted for 

 fertilizers, plaster paris, and works of art. 



The existence of coal of good quality and great quantity in Trans-Pecos 

 Texas is not satisfactorily demonstrated up to this time. 



As far as the adaptability to agriculture of the large flats or basins of 

 Western Texas is concerned, I repeat emphatically that the soil is fertile, and 

 that it is not so much the want of ram in general, but the want of rain in 

 certain seasons of the year that makes irrigation indispensable. 



Similar conditions exist in New Mexico, Colorado, Mexico, California, and 

 other countries. The drawback of wanting rain in the proper seasons was 

 removed by irrigation, not only from running streams, but also from storage 

 reservoirs. 



Numerous locations for such storage reservoirs exist in Western Texas. I 

 regard it my duty to repeatedly call the attention of the people and the 

 proper authorities to the necessity of considering not only the steps to be taken 



