CAPABILITY OF THE MIMBRES RIVER. 
175 
not wish to be understood, decrying the district as incapable of supplying enough of that need¬ 
ful liquid ; quite the reverse. There is enough and to spare, provided it he taken when it is 
supplied and stored away when it is abundant.* Large tanks and reservoirs, sunk into the 
ground, well built, cemented and covered over with frame work, so as to prevent evaporation, 
is all the apparatus needed to obtain plenty water. The various rivers and creeks, whose 
channels are full for a few weeks in the year during the rains, afford a large quantity of water, 
which might be tapped by open drains or sequias leading to these tanks, and their water thus 
saved at the moment of its fall. The Mimbres river, the Sauz brook, and the Ojo de la Vacca, 
might be thus treated. The surface waters which collect on the playas, which are often several 
inches deep by an area of a few square miles during the early weeks of autumn, might be 
appropriated also, and a sufficient supply kept at each station to last until the ensuing season. 
Thus, by such means, at intervals of fifty miles apart, large supplies of water might be had 
along the route; and by adopting the same care and preservation of the water reservoirs, (for in 
these latitudes the water does not become fetid,) which is evinced in Egypt and Arabia for their 
wells, the continent might be crossed with comfort at any period of the year. 
The thick clay beds which are spread over some of the Playa bottoms occasionally serve to 
retain large bodies of water beneath their layers. Sinking ordinary pumps or chains and 
bucket wells is called for, and small supplies could be thus obtained at lesser intervals, which 
would supply the minor wants of wayfarers. 
The results of observation and reasoning appear to be these : 
1st. The fall of rain small in amount, and during summer does not afford a sufficient supply 
to justify sinking artesian wells to any great depth in the region under discussion. 
2d. But the fall of rain is sufficient for all viatic purposes, if it be secured when or shortly 
after its fall, and preserved in covered tanks. 
3d. The clay springs found in the valley bottoms show that ordinary wells and pumps might 
with advantage be sunk. 
Localities of natural supplies of water .—These are along the route: Cook’s springs, Rio 
Mimbres, Ojo de la Yacca, Ojo de Inez, Valle de las Playas, Valle del Sauz, and Playa de los 
Pimas. 
In describing in detail the geology of the route, those localities have been already described. 
They are now noticed again in their capability of yielding water. 
Cook’s spring (page 159) belongs rather to the class of wells than of springs. Its basin of 
supply is very small, being derived from the alluvial covering of the eastern slope of the Picacho 
de Mimbres ; its sources are not subterranean, nor, considering the dislocated condition of the 
strata, could it be supposed that rock supplies could be abundant. The well occupies a surface 
of 600 square feet (approximately ;) its depth at the edge, and two feet inward, is from four to 
ten inches, with a soft, muddy, clay bottom, dangerous for cattle to enter, which rendered the 
estimation of the depth toward the middle impossible. The overflow of water was very small, 
and was soon lost by absorption in the earth lower down. The probable overflow is about 200 
cubic feet in 24 hours. 
Rio Mimbres (page 156) is a mountain stream, derived from the rains falling in the narrow 
valleys and elevated hills, which are in juxtaposition and connected with the trappean eruptions 
* Lieut. G. Andrews, 1st artillery, who commanded the escort accompanying Lieut. J G. Parke’s survey, informed me 
that on his return, in crossing the Playa de las Pimas, in December, he found its bottom covered with a sheet of water 
six inches in most places by one mile wide and three miles long. Here was an immense body of available water. 
