OCR Text |
Show 305 Chicorica Mesa, and terminating in the plains at the foot of Sierra Grande, ninety miles east of the initial point. A, metamorphosed Mesozoic and Palaeozic strata; B, basaltic mesa and benches; G, Cretaceous, Nos. 1- 4; D, scoriaceous eruptive rock; E, watershed, or main range; T, Tertiary deposits, with coal. Fig. 2, plate 48, shows a similar profile from the main range ( E) west of the Moreno Valley, across Great Baldy, upon whose eastern flank the Cretaceous and Tertiary ( C, T) deposits are upraised high above their outcrop on the borders of the Canadian basin, which latter is bounded on the east by the volcanic hills which rest upon the sedimentary deposits on the borders of the plains, some seventy miles to the east of Taos Pass. Besides the same elements indicated by corresponding letters in the preceding profile, the following additional ones are here noticed: F, granitic; G, gneiss and quartzite at head of Cimarron Canon; H, Carboniferous in Taos Canou. Fig. 3, plate 48, exhibits a profile still farther to the south of the former, extending above eighty miles to the east of the main watershed into the plains beyond the Canadian, and showing the great basaltic overflow, reclining upon the outlying flanks of the Black Mountain group, and terminating in the mesas of Bayado and Gonzalitas, which were evidently at one time connected with the Tanaja and Chicorica table- lands. The sections traversed by the above profiles, which are simply an approximation, with no attempt at the representation of details, may be traced by reference to the sketch- map.* Plate 42, fig. 1. THE CAPULIN. Late in the autumn of 1874, in company with Messrs. Springer, Morley, Arms, and Porter, a brief visit was made to the Capulin country, which lies to the east of the Canadian, and some sixty miles out from the Spanish- Kange. The route followed one of the old Santa F6 freight roads, via the Dry Cimarron, crossing the Canadian a short distance below the mouth of Crow Creek. The road rises by a gradual ascent the prairie uplaud to the south of Tanaja Creek, the higher portions of which command extensive views of the distant mountains- the dome of Great Baldy to the south, the long cumulating crest of the Costilla, aud to the north the groups of the Vermejo Mountains, the peculiar topographical features of which are as strikingly exhibited from this great distance as when viewed from the parks at their base- beyond and overtopping the Tertiary plateau, which forms an abrupt wall in the middle distance along the western border of the plain of the Canadian, whose clean carpet of gramma- grass is seldom intruded by the fields of Artemisia so characteristic of the plains in other quarters. Pursuing an eastuortheast course, in a distance of about fifteen miles, the road regains the valley of Tanaja Creek, passing on the way the Tanaja and Eagletail Buttes, two considerable outlying basaltic elevations lying between the former stream and the Canadian, along which their broad- spreading basis forms a low range of basaltic bluffs. The valley is here a shallow depression, inclosed by low bluffs resting upon shales, and terminating above in a considerable deposit of yellow- * It is proper, and besides a positive pleasure, to state my indebtedness to Messrs. G. A. Busbnell and Harry Whiff ham, as also to Mr. Lewis Kingman, and my friend Mr. Morley, for the data embodied in the sketch- map, by which I have no desire to make these gentlemen responsible for the inaccuracies, bnt whatever is good I gladly acknowledge is their own contribution |