Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 2, Pt. 4

of the Guadalupe range, where abundance of pine of the largest size faces its eastern slope;
but fuel of the best quality, and which is alone used on the lower Rio Grande, is furnished by
the roots of the mezquite.
The table-lands are covered with the mezquite brush, whose roots are numerous beyond con ception, and are of a size varying from one inch to five inches in diameter. As a fuel they
are uncommonly fine, and are alone used in the settlements from Dona Ana to San Elizanio.
As many persons, from ignorance of this fact, have suffered for wood in the midst of this abund ance, it is proper to state here that all the table-lands of New Mexico furnish this fuel, and that
it can be procured with very little trouble in any part of the country.
The grama-grass, which exists in the most profuse abundance over the entire surface of these
table-lands, is nutritious during the whole year, and the plains between the Rio Grande and
the Pecos seem intended by nature for the maintenance of countless herds of cattle. Although
little protection from Indian depredations has been afforded, and incalculable quantities of
stock have been driven off by them, the number appears to be undiminished; and as the original
cost is small, and the expense of feeding nothing, cattle and horses are the most abundant possessions of the people of New Mexico.
A good wagon-road, with water at convenient intervals, and offering facilities for travel
available at any season of the year, leads from the valley of the Rio Grande at E1 Paso to the
Pecos, near the 32d parallel.
The valley of the Pecos at this parallel of latitude is a level plain of fertile soil, about two
miles in width, destitute of timber, and bordered on each side by table-lands about fifty feet
high, which descend into it by very gentle inclinations. The river itself is about forty yards
wide, and, with a general direction to the southeast, it traverses its valley from side to side in
a very tortuous course. Its bed is a compact limestone, over which it descends, with a depth
of about two feet, through numberless rapids, and at one point near the mouth of Delaware
creek, over a fall of two and a half feet. The valley is very fertile and susceptible of a high
state of cultivation, the uniformity of its surface and the peculiar character of the stream affording unlimited facilities for irrigation.
A short distance below the 32d parallel the valley widens to several miles in extent; the rocky
bed of the river disappears, and is replaced by falling banks ten feet in height, and by a soft
muddy bottom. The few fording-places below the mouth of Delaware creek are very unfavorable at the best season of the year, and during high water are absolutely impracticable. From
the accounts of those who have crossed the river by the route from San Antonio to El Paso, and
from my own examination of it for one hundred miles below the 32d parallel, it is quite certain
that no point below affords anything like the facilities for fording as does the crossing at the
mouth of Delaware creek.
Of the Llano Estacado.-Upon the eastern or left bank of the river commences the "Llano
Estacado," or Staked Plain, which derives its name from a tradition that, in early times the
Spaniards had staked a road upon it from San Antonio, in Texas, to Santa Fe, in New Mexico.
This famous desert, without wood or water, extends from the vicinity of the 30th to about the
35th parallel of latitude, is about one hundred and seventy-five miles across at its point of greatest width, and divides the Rio Grande and its tributaries from the affluents of the Mississippi
and the streams of eastern Texas.
From the statements of persons who had crossed it near its northern and southern limits, I
was prepared. to find it a hard table-land, elevated from six hundred to one thousand feet above
the level of the streams which border it on both sides, and faced on the east and west by abrupt
rocky precipices. To my surprise, however, the inclination from the Pecos was exceedingly
gentle, and the summit-level was attained at a distance of thirty-five miles without an abrupt
ascent at any point, and without the appearance of any of the marked characteristics which
had been attributed to it. The descent from its summit to the head-waters of the Colorado was
so gentle as only to be perceptible to instrumental survey, and there was nothing tQ mark its
LLANO ESTACADO.
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