266 ADAPTATION OF THE COUNTRY 
About the parallel of 29° 30' the table-land breaks off into 
numerous spurs, descending to the great plains or prairies, 
which extend to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in a broad 
belt from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles in 
width. The whole of this district consists of gently undulat- 
ing plains without timber, save along the margins of the streams, 
and is covered with the most luxuriant grass. The eastern 
portion of this plain 1s watered by numerous streams, and in 
fertility 1s unsurpassed by any portion of the globe. The 
western and south-western portion is deficient in water-courses. 
The Rio Grande possesses few tributaries here worth notice ; 
and south of the Nueces, the streams entering into the Gulf 
are quite diminutive. But for grazing and rearing large herds 
of cattle, the land is unsurpassed ; and it is evident, from what 
we saw of wells sunk in the midst of these plains, that water 
can be found any where within a hundred feet of the surface. 
‘The indigenous prairie grass is tall, coarse, full of seed 
at the top, and when young resembles wheat in the spring. 
But in grasses the glory of the State is the mezquit, found 
only in Western Texas. It yields a fine soft sward, preserves 
its verdure in the winter, and beyond all comparison affords 
the best wild pasture in the world. It has also the peculiar 
property of retaining its nutritive quality after it has become 
hard and dry.” 
West of the Rio Grande, from about the thirty-fourth 
parallel to the Gulf of California, and, I may add, to the 
shores of the Pacific, and thence south for eight hundred or a 
thousand miles, this vast region is but poorly adapted to agri- 
culture. It is destitute of forests, except in the higher regions 
of the Sierra Madre, or great chain of the Cordilleras, or in the 
defiles leading to them. 'Timbered land is also found in nar- 
row strips along the water-courses; but these cannot with 
propriety be termed forests. There are also valleys between 
parallel ranges of mountains, sometimes two or three miles m 
width, which derive some moisture from the mountains, where 
