32 
CONCLUSION OF THE OFFICIAL KEVIEW, ETC. 
towards the southeast. There is neither timber nor water upon its surface. It is subject to the 
same influences as the valleys above referred to, except that there is no mountain range at the 
east to correspond with the Guadalupe mountains, along the base of which the western edges of 
its strata outcrop. 
The first point selected for boring was near the 32d parallel and about fifteen miles east of 
the Pecos. The party reached this position in the latter part of May, 1855, and the boring 
was commenced about the first of June. In three and a half months the well was sunk to a 
depth of 641 feet, through sandstone, marl, and clay. At a depth of 360 feet, pure and clear 
water was reached, which rose to within 290 feet of the surface of the ground. About 200 feet 
lower, water was again met with ; and, at the lowest point attained, a third supply of water 
forced its way up through the sandstone in which the boring was being carried on. Here the 
rapid rising of the water so softened and undermined the beds of clay and marl that the well 
caved in, and it was found impossible to clear it. The details of these operations were given in 
my last annual report. It was mentioned in this report that the supply of tubing taken with 
the party, (500 feet,) which, from the character of the formation, had been deemed ample for 
all the trials to he made, had been found insufficient for this well, and that Captain Pope was 
obliged to suspend further boring upon the Staked Plain until he could receive additional 
tubing, and had in the meantime proceeded to the execution of the second duty assigned 
him—that of ascertaining the practicability of constructing artesian and other wells upon the 
route explored by Lieut. Parke between the Rio Grande and the Gila rivers. 
The point selected for trial was ten miles distant from Fort Fillmore, on the plain west of 
the Rio Grande. The operations were begun here about the 1st November, and continued 
until the 15th February, at which time a depth of 293 feet had been bored through a porphyritic 
detrital. deposit, slightly united by calcareous cement, with occasional beds of tenacious 
yellow and red clay. The boring, which was very difficult, had not passed through this forma¬ 
tion when the party moved to the Pecos to meet the new supply of tubing, the arrival of which 
at that stream was expected to take place about the 1st of April. While the operation of boring 
was going on west of the Rio Grande, a reconnaissance was made to ascertain the practicability 
of boring artesian wells upon the Jornada del Muerto. The result,'in the opinion of the geolo¬ 
gist, made it probable that, to be successful, they must be carried to the depth of 1,500 feet, 
where the carboniferous strata would be found that outcrop on the mountains east and west of 
the jornada. From this opinion Captain Pope dissented, and gave reasons, connected with the 
thickness of the detrital deposits and the stratified rocks, composing in part these mountains,* 
which induced him to think that it would not be necessary to carry the wells to more than half 
the depth assigned by the geologist. 
The point west of the Rio Grande where the boring was made, lies in the continuation of the 
basin of the Jornada del Muerto ; the thicknesses of the formations varying from those found in 
and near that jornada. 
The party of Captain Pope arrived on the Pecos the second time about the last of March, 
1856, and resumed the borings for an artesian well at a point five miles east of that where the 
work had been carried on the previous year. Commencing to bore on the 5th of April, the 
depth of 245 feet was reached by the 16th. Here water was encountered, which rose twenty- 
five feet in the well, and remained at the level to which the first water met with, on the preceding 
year, rose. The new supply of tubing was now needed, but it had not arrived. In my report 
to the Department of November 29, 1855, it was stated that, by your directions, measures had 
