El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-27

flowers, so that one can get big bou-
quet by cutting one of them open.
Notwithstanding the arid character
OF the country, there is plenty of food
for all these animals. The cactus fruits
are nourishing, and 30 are the seeds OF
the prickly pear, while the mesquite
beans are extremely nutritious and 9TH
err desert plants yield sustenance in one
form or another. The loftier mountains,
too, bear pine forests on their tops,
which produce edible nuts. One natur-
ally thinks of the climber Iine'' on q
mountain as marking q zone, reached
in going upward, where trees cease to
grow; but in this strange region it is
only on the mountain tops that timber
is found, the slopes below being devoid
of tree growth.
When the Mexican boundary was
surveyed the parties engaged in the
work could not get into the canon
country with their wagons and outfit,
and were obliged to make detour
around it. 1t is domain full of myth
and legend, as might be expected from
its photographic peculiarities. In
places the canons have perpendicular
walls of chalk and limestone, built with
exquisite regularity of natural mason
ry, which rather resembles the work OF
art than of nature. As the Rio Grande
goes round Mount Emory-the loftiest
with an altitude of 5000 feet-it makes
its deepest cutting, channel fully
1000 feet in depth. Think OF the
length of time, doubtless running up
into thousands of centuries that must
have been required for the stream to
eat its way downward through nearly
q mile and q quarter of solid rock!
Seen from the cauon's edge, the river
Is a mere thread, and the roar OF its
rapids and falls Is scarcely audible.
1t is supposed that Csbeza de Vaca,
who was the first white man to cross
the present territory Of the United
States from Atlantic to Pacific, went
through the Great Bend country. He
had with him three companions, one OF
whom was negro, and the party had
no food supplies except what nature
afforded and the Indians gave them.
Starting from Florida in June, 1927.
they did not see a white person until
April, 1536-nesrly nine years-when
they reached Sinaloa, In Mexico, and
there came across an outpost OF the
Cortez invasion.
The Great Bend country, save in
some of its parts, is very little known
b av1ng ever been made. 1t 1s region
of lost mountains, as they might be
termed, as well as of lost rivers. Some
hundreds of miles to the northward the
chain of the Rockies loses its continuity
and thence In a southerly direction the
are scattered in isolated
ranges and peaks, forming no homo
Reneous system. Some of them are
domes, like sugar loaves, others are
block-shaped messs, ;aud others yet,
when seen in groups from distance,
look like the spires of distant cities.
The Pecos and the Rio Grande are the |
only streams In all that territory that |
reach the ocean eventually.
Here and there occur springs, though |
'arely, and in their neigh borhood cat
lie ranches are found. In the "bol-
ons," between the ranges, hopeless
leserts though they are, water may be
rot by digging deep for it. The boil
IONS are basins filed with debris from
he mountains and wateris usually held
q their bottoms, If the dry and porous
trats above be pierced through. It is
me OF the oldest freaks of that domain
# geological uriosities.-Boston Tran
cript.