188 
EL PASO AND 
In 1851 many large tracts of land near El Paso, whicli 
were planted in the spring, and through which irrigat- 
ing canals were dug at a great cost, produced nothing ; 
and I was told by a gentleman at San Eleazario, 
twenty-five miles below El Paso, that the summer of 
1852 was the first one in five years when there had 
been sufficient to irrigate all the lands of that vicinity 
which had been put under cultivation. The value of 
lands dependent on artificial irrigation is much lessen- 
ed when this fact is known. 
Much has been said of the great value of the Me- 
silla valley on the Mexican bank, some thirty or forty 
' miles above El Paso. We have a similar valley on our 
side of the Pio Grande, as well situated and equally 
productive. We have besides more than two thousand 
miles of this river bottom, between the source of the 
Rio Grande and its mouth. Where the hills and 
mountains approach close to the stream, there is of 
course little or no bottom land ; while at other places, 
it varies from a hundred yards to four miles in width. 
But of this fertile land not one tenth part can ever be 
regularly and successfully cultivated, owing to the un- 
certainty of the supply of water. The Rio Grande re- 
ceives no tributary for more than four hundred miles, 
reckoning above and below El Paso ; and if there 
is now found to be not water enough even for the 
limited district near that town, what is to be done 
with the vast tract along the river below in a time of 
scarcity ? 
The houses at El Paso are all of one story, and 
built of adobe, i. e. the mud of the valley formed into 
bricks from twelve to eighteen inches long, and four 
