Route Near the ThirtySecond Parallel, From the Red River to the Rio Grande, Explored by Bvt Capt John Pope, Top Engineers, in 1854 Report on the From the Collection of Notes of Capt Pop

Excerpt from Route Near the Thirty-Second Parallel, From the Red River to the Rio Grande, Explored by Bvt. Capt. John Pope, Top. Engineers, in 1854: Report on the Geology of the Route, Near the Thirty-Second Parallel, Prepared From the Collection of Notes of Capt. Pope

According to the profile which Captain Pope has presented, the elevated plain of the Llano may be considered to extend from the Guadalupe mountains, or the Pecos, to a point beyond the Colorado, or the divide between it and the Brazos river. This point is feet in altitude, and from it the surface descends very regularly for nearly 275 miles, to the banks of Red river, at the termination of the line of survey, only 641 feet above the tide - level.

In the descriptions by Captain Pope, however, he regards the sources of the Colorado, or the Sulphur springs, as the eastern limit of the Llano; and the character of the country indicates a change in the nature of the rocks and soil. I have, therefore, concluded that the geological for-r mation composing the surface of the Llano does not extend on the line of the trail to the east of the Sulphur springs, and I have so represented it upon the geological map.

Rivers and streams.-the principal streams which traverse or take their rise in the Llano, are the Canadian and Red rivers, the Brazos and Colorado, and the Pecos. The first named flows from its sources in the mountains near Santa Fé, almost directly east, and intersects the Llano; the Pecos, also rising in the same place, flows not across the plain, but southerly, parallel with the mountain ranges, forming a long valley of erosion. The other rivers ap pear to rise near the eastern margin of the plain, and are formed by the union of nume-r rous minor affluents, after they emerge from the cations of the plateau. With very few exceptions, wherever these streams traverse or intersect the Llano, they are characterized by bold, bluff banks or walls, on either side, which are almost impassable, and confine the traveller to the tortuous course of the stream; while, above the level surface of the plain stretches out and affords a boundless prospect in every direction. The vertical banks near the sources of Red river are graphically described by Captain Marcy in his report, as follows: The gigantic escarpments of sandstone, rising to the giddy height of 800 feet on each side, gradually closed in until they were only a few yards apart, and finally united overhead, leaving a long, narrow corridor beneath, at the base of which the head Spring of the principal branch of Red river takes its rise. It The stupendous escarpments of solid rock rising precipitously from the bed of the river to such a height as for a great portion of the day to exclude the rays of the sun, were worn away by the lapse of time, and the action of the water and the weather, into the most fantastic forms, that required but little effort of the imagination to convert into works of art, and all united in forming one of the grandest and most picturesque scenes that can be im agined. Occasionally might be seen a good representation of the towering walls of a castle of the feudal ages, with its giddy battlements pierced with loop-holes, and its projecting watch-towers standing out in bold relief upon the azure ground of the pure and trans parent sky above. In other places, our fancy would metamorphose the escarpments into a bas tion front, as perfectly modelled and constructed as if it had been a production of the genius of a Vauban, with redoubts and salient angles all arranged in due order.

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