24 
DESCRIPTION OP THE COUNTRY. 
hills covered with the same. The slopes are gentle to station 23, where the width of the valley 
traversed is contracted to 100 yards. From station 25 to station 28, the trail passes through a 
thick forest of large pine trees. Upon each side of the road, from station 21, and a quarter of a 
mile distant, are high hills, steep and rocky ; those upon the right are covered with cedars. 
Here, by a gentle descent, we enter Canon Blanco, a wide chasm, whose rocky sides are covered 
with pines and cedars ; and beside a pool of water is Camp 55. 
Canon Blanco extends from Camp 55 to station 16. Its width is variable, being at station 1 
five hundred and forty yards ; at station 3 one and a half miles ; at station 4 one mile ; and at 
station 6 half a mile. At the narrowest point, between stations 6 and 7, the width is one 
hundred and fifty yards. The sides of the canon are rocky, steep, and covered with small cedar 
trees. It has many branches ; the main one drains the waters from station 3 towards the south¬ 
east. At station 16 the trail issues from the canon and, passing a crest to an undulating prairie, 
reaches Camp 56, near large ponds of water called Lagunas. 
From the Lagunas, two routes, as before mentioned, lead to Rio Grande ; one by way of 
San Antonio Pass, between Zandia and Manzana mountains, to Isleta, twelve miles south of Albu¬ 
querque ; the other, more northerly, along a branch of Rio Galisteo, around the Gold mount¬ 
ains, to San Felipe. Both routes were found practicable, and each intersects the Del Norte at 
a point favorable for bridging. The slope by Galisteo commences directly, and is nearly 
uniform through its whole course. The grade would scarcely exceed thirty-five or forty feet 
per mile; while, by San Antonio, a maximum of 105.7 feet per mile would be required. 
There is much tillable land in the Galisteo valley, hut no timber ; that could be obtained among 
the Zandia mountains, from ten to twenty miles distant. 
The more direct route from the Lagunas to the Rio del Norte, via the San Antonio Pass to 
Albuquerque or Isleta, was explored by A. H. Campbell, Esq., my principal assistant engineer. 
The following description of this part of the line is taken from his report, and the accompany¬ 
ing cut, representing the Pass of San Antonio, has been taken from his sketches : 
11 From the Pecos to Albuquerque via Rio San Antonio , or Canon Carnuel. —The problem of 
leaving the Pecos is a more difficult one than we have yet had to solve. There are, however, 
two methods which are practicable in the vicinity of our exploration, and I doubt not that by 
following the river to one of its valleys heading with the Galisteo, a very easy mode of crossing 
the Rocky mountain range can be accomplished. To determine a suitable point for crossing- 
near Anton Chico, and to even approximate to its cost, would require very careful surveys with 
the level and the compass. The approach from the east is not so difficult. The river can be 
crossed with a single span of 150 feet at Anton Chico, or about half a mile below with a less 
span. 
“ Proceeding, then, from either of those points, one route would lead up a small valley south 
of the town, which heads in the elevated plateaux through which the Pecos canons, as at 
Cuesta ; pusuing a westerly course thence, over a rolling region, to Canon Blanco. The average 
ascent per mile to this point is hut forty-three feet, but the maximum grade for the first ten 
miles will be at least eighty feet per mile. The other route from the Pecos would cross the 
river some four or five miles above the town by a viaduct, at an elevation of from 150 to 200 
feet; thence to a point some ten or twelve miles from Anton Chico, connecting with the other 
route to the summit between Canon Blanco and the Pecos. This route would be several miles 
the shorter, and the maximum grade probably not exceed seventy feet per mile. The great cost 
of a viaduct on this route, however, would render it a question as to which of these routes would 
he preferable. From the entrance to Canon Blanco, the line explored pursues that canon to 
near its western limit; thence, over the divide, into the basin between the Rocky mountains 
and the Pecos. For several miles the ground descends in the canon to about half-way through ; 
thence ascends to the divide above mentioned. The drainage of this canon is southeasterly, 
probably to the Pecos, the main cleft opening and descending in that direction. The grades 
through Canon Blanco will be light, not exceeding twenty feet per mile, except at the western 
