Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1897-03-06
THE AMERICAN NILE.
SUCH IS The GREAT RIO oRANDE,
WITH IT'S VAoARaEs.


Must Ne Seen Msre Than Once 20 He IN
dsrstSod-Flosrs MAanly Underxround.
but NJ Times There IL = Torrent on Top.
''It's q river ], 500 miles long, meas
ured In its windings,' said the man
from New Mexico, speaking Of the Rio
Grande. ''Eor few miles, at its mouth,
light draft steamers run up from the
gulf OF Mexico. Above that Il doesn't
float = crSft except ut ferries. In the old
days when New Mexico was q province
Of Spain, the people along the river
didn't even have ferryboats, and the
only way they had Of getting across was
by fording. For this purpose q special
breed OF large horses was reared 20 be
kept at the fords When the river was
too high for these horses to wade across,
travellers camped ON the bank and wait
ed for the waters 70 subside. Now there
are bridges over the river at the larger
Rio Grande towns and in other places
rope ferries and rowboats are the means
Of crossing.
In times Of low water a stranger
seeing its current for the first time
would be apt to think slightingly Of the
Rio Bravo del Norte, as the New Mexi-
cans love to call the great river. Mean
dering in a small part Of a very wide
channel he would see only little muddy
scream, for ordinarily nine tenths of the
Rio Grande is underground, the water
soaking along toward the gulf through
the sands beneath its channel. The val
ley, bounded everywhere to left and
right by mountains or foothills, is sandy,
and the water, percolating the sands
down to hard pan, spreads out ON each
side 50 that it may always be found
anywhere In the valley by digging down
TO the level Of the rivers surface. For
the greater part Of the year the river
above ground flows swift and muddy,
narrowing as il swirls round a sand bar
and widening over ahallows. But the
thing that strikes the stranger most
| qneerly Is its disappearance altogether
for reaches, many miles in length, OF
its channel, which, except, it may be.
for water hole here and there, is as
| dry IS Sahara The river is keeping
right along about it's business, however,
and where q rock reef or clay bed blocks
its subterranean current it energies tc
the surface and takes fresh start above
ground. running as big stream which,
farther down, may lose itself in the
sands again
'It Is when the foods come down
that the Rio Grande shows why it re
Quires so big a channel for its all The
year round use and demonstrates thai
If the waterway were even wider il
would be an advantage TO residents
along its banks. 1t is fed by watershed
of vast area and steep descent, which
I'm times Of rain and melting SHOWS pre-
cipitates the waters rapidly into tn,
channel In June, when the snow melt
ON the peaks about its headwaters il
Colorado and northern New Mexico, anS
later In the summer, when heavy show
ers aud cloudbursts are the order of thu
day, the Rio Grande overfows its banks
deluging wide tracts of valley and some
times carving q new channel for itself
changing its course for miles Wher
the valley Is unusually wide and sandy
as below Is1eta and In the Merilla val
ley, the old channels In which the rive
used to flow are plainly indicated in til
landscape.
"No one who has seen the great rive
In food is likely TO forget the positiv
ferocity It seems to display as Its water
} sweep all before them. and woe to ia
> man or beast who is overtaken by them
The flood arrives without warning. Tn
aly may be clear above when the travel
er. leisurely jogging across the wild
, channel, hears his wagon wheels graf
upon the sand with peculiar sound
, means that the waters are stirring th
; sands beneath him, and then. if b
J knows the river, he lashes his hors,
f, making at all speed for the neare.
bank, and lucky he is il he reaches
safe. The chances are that before he gei
| there he hears the roaring of waters q
! the channel and sees them coming dow
toward him with front like a wal
!. rolling forward and downward as
? over fall. with a rising food behin'
Many man and whole wagon traiI
have been overwhelmed In this wa
and, buried in sands or cast away c
desert banks, no human eye has ev'
seen them again.
''The great river has it's pleasing al
romantic aspect, SO fascinating that it
a saying among people who live In i
: valley that 'whosoever drinks of its VT
tiers and departs viii come again to Sc
8 them Like the Nile, the Rio Crane
t enriches the soil Of its valley to II
point Of inexhaustible fertility. AloI
its banks in New Mexico are fields tn
! for two centuries have been culEvats
yearly. yielding great crops and thu
are as productive today as when thu
' first were TILED Irrigating canals, ca
q ed acequias madras (mother bitches
convey water from the river to be di
: tributed through little gates to the fell
: Of the valley, which it both waters a.
6 enricheA A trip along the river reeves
u a succession OF pictures Of primiti
civilization OF the old Spanish Americs
4 type. Adobe villages, with small. Fl
q rooted houses built about antiq,
J. churches, and the spacious houses of t
. vices, or great men; orchards, vineyard
r wheathelds and grazing cattle are I
}; features OF the scenery of the r
3 Grande, the American Nile Me
y York Sun.
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