96 The American Geologist. February, 1903. 
its buildings is the large stone depot of the Santa Fe Company. 
This building besides serving as a depot, contains the Harvey 
Eating House and hotel, a natural museum exhibited by the 
Santa Fe as an advertisement of the mountain country. It also 
contains a library of considerable size. This city, with its 
mixed population of Mexicans, Americans, Germans, English, 
French and other nationalities, is the chief business center of 
the southwest. 
General Snrvey. 
On the whole the section of country under consideration in 
this paper, is one vast desert area sparcely covered with grass, 
pinons, red cedar, sage brush and cactus, except in the valleys 
where there is sufficient water for the purposes of irrigation. 
In these valleys, corn, wheat, fruit and beans are raised by 
the natives and Mexicans. To consider the entire area again, 
it presents two basin-shaped districts, the Rio Puerco and the 
Rio Grande basins, with the strata in each respective basin dip- 
ping toward the center. The separating line between the bas- 
ins is the Nacimiento mountains, the west wing of the Jemez 
mountains. It is continued southward in a line of hills which 
decrease in altitude as they recede from the main range. The 
two basins merge into one below Albuquerque. 
The whole area is faulted and nuich broken. High escarp- 
ments frequently remain to mark the fault lines. Examples 
of such escarpments are : the San Dia mountains. Mesa Blanco 
south of Salt river, and one on each side of the Red Beds just 
south of the Jemez range. There is also evidence that the Na- 
cimiento mountains were originally, the result of a drop on 
their western side. The resulting escarpment has been worn 
down and subsequently covered in part so that it is not so 
strong in relief as the San Dia escarpment ; the Carboniferous 
strata which flank this range on the east is entirely wanting 
to the west of this range. Mesa Blanco was left an escarpment 
by a drop on its northern side of more than 1600 feet, 1000 feet 
of which still remain. The escarpment to the east of the Red 
Bed mesa above mentioned is now 900 feet in hight and the 
escarpment to the west of the same mesa is 1700 feet. The 
strata of this mesa dip toward the east at a great angle on its 
' western margin, and at a greater angle toward the west on its 
eastern side. The whole country, as is indicated above, is ex- 
