30

on rocks. At a place called Painted Caves, near the lower crossing of the Devil's river, are also a few paintings of a similar character.

ANCIENT SHELL BANKS.

Mr. Triplett and Judge Pickett, late members of the Legislature, inform me that there are numerous artificial shell mounds along the coast, thirty to fifty miles inland in the southeastern part of the State. Charcoal beds where fires were made are also there at and near the surface.

In the State collection is a vase about fourteen inches high and eight in diameter at the top. It is of dark brown pottery, and has some rude carvings or marks on the outside. It was found beneath a ledge of rocks by Mr. Wm. Ditto, near Graham in Young county. It had been slightly covered with earth, and some animal had dug and partly uncovered it.

HEIGHTS ABOVE THE SEA.

The following measurements of heights were made with one of Green's improved and compensated aneroid barometers of late date (1875), and may be relied upon as being nearly true:

The country west of Fort Concho is higher than is generally supposed, and its mountains are higher, the highest probably being in the neighborhood of Fort Davis and at the head of the Limpia, on whose waters the fort is situated, at the base of some precipitous mountains, at an elevation of about five thousand feet. Ten or twelve miles west of the fort, near the El Paso road, is what is generally supposed to be the highest mountain in that region, a mountain which is a prominent feature in the landscape, being seen from long distances. It being unnamed and its height unknown, 1 went to its top and found it to be seven thousand four hundred and fifty feet high, it being the highest point which I have visited in the State and several hundred feet higher than any mountain in the States east of the Mississippi river. I have named it in honor of Richard Coke, our present worthy Governor.

Farther west there is another prominent mountain, the highest at Eagle springs. This is six thousand five hundred and fifty feet high. It has been supposed by many to be higher than the preceding, because it has been looked