El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-02-07

IT. HE Dallas News publishes. an interest
ing series Of letters relative to a trip
Dark Canyon and the Mescalero
agency. The letters are written-the last
one from FL Paso-by w W Pedder, OF Los
Angeles who is en- route from New orh 20
his home city The writer graphically tells
Of his adventures i'm Dark Canyon, situated
in New Mexico. and the DIFFICULTIES encoun-
tered in supplying extras which had been
overlooked Altogether, the letteEs are OF
much interest, especially to motorists. The
Giimore's Ranch. Three Miles East OF
RuidosO POstoffice n NJ, Jan. S.-We are
up in the snow belt and have tied up
here this afternoon upon the advice Of the
e. various persons to await the coming OF to-
morrow. when by making an early start we
can cross the mountains and the redoubtable
Dark Canyon while the ground and snow
TINS AFTERNOON OF now muouy anu Hllsly
this ground be when wet with the melt=
ing snow, which trickles down on the roads,
which are not graded to any width and the
water uses the wheel tracks as runOffs.
making it awful going.
The grades up to this point, save one
have not been hard; the pull I refer 20 is
about 81 miles from Roswell and is the
eastern approach OF what IS known as Pr
cache Dug Hill, after reaching the crest Of
which good road goes down from 1t on the
western side. and the outer edge of the
grade is walled with rock taken from the
roadway. We were soon in the PicachO
valley, through which the River Hondo runs
Its water being used to irrigate the farms
contiguous to it. They have had consider
able rain in this section leaving numerous
cross washes in the road also much loose
rock OF stones If il wasn't for this much
better time could be made on this portion
OF the Borderland route.
In this portion Of New Mexico adobe
houses are much in evidence. for they are
cheap to construct and well adapted to the
climatic c8nJii l'f'-- leing cool IN summer
and warm in 1r.n The house we are in is
constructed oF material and is two
stories IN hc5al
The people N- -e stopping with are very
hospitable and friendly. as seemingly are
most of the people in this country We have
put chains on all four wheels and made ev-
cry preparation for bucldng the strenuOsity
promised Tor tomorrow, are going to bed.
we are enjoying every minute Of this trip
ana our entire equipment seems to enter in
the spirit Of our adventures. for there are
no pikers in our crowd
Sun Seldom Shines.
Hotel Alam0gOrdO. AlamOgordo n NJ,
Jan. 9.-We were on the road soon after
dawn but with considerable trepidation for
last night was one Of the warmest Of this
season and the ground hadn't frozen as
hard as we had hoped However, it was
much better Than yesterday when we start
ed, and though bumpy we made good head
way over the frozen slushy mud and were
soon at the entrance Of Dark Canyon after
LraVersinE several miles of snow.
We found here the drifts had been very
heavy, for the sun seldom shines in this
canyon and the snow was about tive feet
deep on the level There had been counle
OF teams over the pass since the last snow
Of 10 days ago, but they didn't help US
much, Tor our tires are wide and their are
narrow It was some fight to get through
that canyon, particularly around the west
seem 70 turn those corners and. consequent