FOR A RAILWAY. 573 
known to exist in several places, which are filled with water at 
times, by the overflows of the Colorado. In these, by sinking 
wells, a plentiful supply of water can doubtless be procured. 
Should the route of which I am speaking be selected for 
a railway, supplies could be furnished at several places on the 
line after leaving the settled portions of Texas. New Mexico 
and the valley of the Rio Grande would furnish cattle, sheep, 
mules, flour, and corn. ‘The valley of the Casas Grandes in 
Chihuahua, is one of the finest wheat and corn districts in the 
country, and Sonora could furnish an abundance of cattle, 
wheat, corn, and beans. Supplies may also be taken to the 
line of the road by the Gulf of California and the Colorado 
“River. The latter, although it has from four to five feet of 
water near the junction when lowest, is somewhat obstructed 
by sand-bars towards its mouth; but I have no doubt that 
steamers, with a light draught of water, may ascend, the 
greater portion of the year, even for a distance a hundred miles 
above Fort Yuma. The Gila can never be navigated except 
in time of floods or high water, when flat-bottomed boats 
might possibly pass up to the Salinas, one hundred and eighty 
miles above its mouth. Supplies might be sent, as is now 
proposed, to Fort Yuma, by sailing vessels to the head of the 
Gulf of California, and thence by a small steamer up the 
Colorado. 
I have spoken of desert, woodless plains on the line near 
the parallel of 32°. It is proper to remark that any route 
south of the parallel of 35°, must cross the great Llano 
Estacado, east of the Rocky Mountains, which increases much 
in width above the 32d parallel. I crossed it about 31° 30’ 
or from the head waters of the Concho to the Horse Head 
Crossing on the Pecos, a distance of seventy miles, without 
water; but a degree further north, its width is more than 
doubled. Then the region between the Pecos and the Rio 
Grande is equally barren (so far as known), and must also be 
crossed by any route south of the 35th parallel. 
