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also in the silver mines of old Mexico. He went as a volunteer, going as far as El Paso and back to Fort Davis with us, rendering valuable assistance. For the State collection we obtained many valuable specimens of minerals, fossils, etc., and also a large collection of dried plants for the botanical department, especially of western grasses.
We had been told that a small party could not safely go to El Paso on account of hostile, thieving Indians, who occasionally make raids into Texas from New Mexico and the Indian Reservation in order to steal horses and sometimes other stock, and also kill people. However, a small party of five or six men, well armed, can go over the route traveled by us with perfect safety. It is often done by two or three men. The El Paso stage has but one soldier as a guard. Wagon trains drawn by mules or oxen, conveying merchandise and supplies to the forts and people in the valley of the Rio Grande are going out west and back again, being almost constantly on the road. Small parties, for perfect safety, can join these. Roads of the route good and comparatively level.
GEOLOGY.
The following are the subdivisions of geological time now in general use in this country:
- I. Archean time, including,
- 1. Azoic age.
- 2. Eozoic age.
- II. Paleozoic time, which includes
- 1. Age of Invertebrates or Silurian.
- 2. Age of Fishes or Devonian.
- 3. Age of Coal Plants or Carboniferous.
- III. Mesozoic Time.
- The Age of Reptiles.
- IV. Cenozoic Time.
- Tertiary.
- Quaternary.
Our examinations during the past season have been of the-
- 1. Azoic age.
- 2. Eozoic age.
In the Paleozoric Time of the Lower Silurian and Carboniferous.
The Cretaceous of the Mesozoic Time. Lastly the Tertiary and Quaternary.