Geographic Features of Texas. — Hill. 21 
scape, and impregnating its soil and waters with excessive 
proportions. It increases in ruggedness as the foot of the 
Plains is approached, forming in places the bad lands above 
mentioned. 
The Red Beds underlie the Plains, although they are not 
their surface formation, and are often cut down to by the val- 
leys of the rivers which indent or cross them, as the Pecos and 
the Canadian. 
It is probable that the Red Beds never extended across the 
central palaeozoic area, and that they were laid down in an 
interior sea whose eastern shore was limited by that feature. 
More investigation is needed upon this subject and the state- 
ment is only tentative. 
The Llano Estacado or Staked Plains.'''^ 
Within the past few years the newly constructed railways of 
Texas and New Mexico have placed within easy reach of the 
geologist this the greatest of all Texas plains, which formerly 
was almost unapproachable from lack of facilities for trans- 
portation. By their aid it was possible to make a preliminary 
reconnoissance of what is, perhaps, areally the greatest con- 
tinuous and least denuded plateau of our country. Geograph- 
ically the Staked Plains of Texas and New Mexico include the 
quadrangular region south of the Canadian, east of the Pecos 
and west of the 101st meridian. Topographically this region 
is a single plain, or mesa, terminated except at its extreme 
northwest and southeast corners by vertical precipices every- 
where standing in grand contrast above the surrounding and 
lower region. The surface of this plain is smooth and un- 
broken, except at its edges. Its surface, as a whole, slopes to 
the eastward, its greatest elevation is at the northwest corner. 
Hydrographically the whole surface is void of running streams, 
and could be classified after G. DeLa Noe as "Regions sans 
ecoulement," i. e., in which there are no streams, and the 
'■• The name of these plains has been attributed by those of an imag- 
inative turn of mind to a supposed row of stakes, alleged to have been 
set up by ancient Mexican travelers for the purpose of guide posts. It 
is well known however that Indian trails have existed across the Plains 
since they were first known, and besides the frontiersmen would not 
resort to such devices even if they possessed the timber for the pur- 
pose, which in the present instance it would have been impossible to 
secure. The term Llano estacado alludes to the great scarp or step of 
its borders. 
