VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE. 
195 
water failed, and with it the crops. At Fort Fillmore, 
about fort}^ miles above El Paso, is the next settle- 
ment. Between this and Frontera there is a broad 
alluvial bottom of great richness, unsurpassed by the 
Mesilla valley opposite, or any portion of the valley 
of the Rio Grande. 
The mountain chain through which the river has 
here worked a passage, is but a spur of a higher 
range, which, about two miles east of the river, rises 
to the height of 1,500 feet. This range extends in a 
northerly direction, but is not continuous. About 
twenty miles to the north, it gradually drops off, 
leaving a passage of several miles, when it again rises 
to a greater height, into the Sierra de los Organos^ or 
Organ Mountains, so named from their numerous pina- 
cles, which, at a distance, resemble the pipes of an 
organ. Both the Spaniards and the aborigines dis- 
play a much better taste in the appellations given by 
them to mountains, and other objects of natural 
scenery, than is usually exhibited by our people. 
Their names are significant of the appearance which 
the mountain assumes, while ours are christened after 
some military officer or politician, who may have 
made a little noise in his day, but may have never 
been near the locality which bears his name. The 
portion near El Paso is without timber ; but the 
Organ range, which abounds in deep gorges and 
ravines, is covered with heavy pine forests to its very 
summit. The valleys, too, and the rounded hills, 
which are composed of the debris, present many 
groves of oaks. On the opposite side of the river, 
arising from the spurs or lesser chain, which connect 
