a few in the deserts of Nevada. In Mexico they are obtained in the valley deposits of the city of Mexico, the Lake Chapala basin of Jalisco, and could be secured at many other points. The grandest demonstration of the principle, however, is found in the famous San Luis Park of Colorado. It is true that this valley, owing to the large area of mountains surrounding it, has an unusual number of "lost rivers" supplying water to the valley deposits from which over thirty-seven hundred flowing wells have been obtained. Less than ten per cent of these attain a depth of seven hundred feet, and barely fifteen per cent reach four hundred feet. On the great La Noria Desert, stretching for one hundred miles northeast of El Paso, Texas, between the Organ and Franklin ranges, which is void of a drop of surface water, abundant supplies of underground water are now procured at a depth of two hundred feet, and are pumped by windmills for irrigating purposes.
The wells of all these localities were drilled haphazard, without reference to the geological principle we have endeavored to describe. If this principle could be made known that the underground waters of the arid region are stored in the desert deposits, and not in the mountain rocks, there is no reason to doubt that wells could be procured in most of these innumerable wastes of the arid region, which would at least suffice for the passing traveler, and in many cases supply water for live stock and irrigation, sufficient to supply the necessaries of life to the mining populations of the adjacent mountain regions.
