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REPORT OF MR. W. F. CUMMINS.

INTRODUCTION.

Mr. E. T. Dumble, State Geologist.

In compliance with instructions received from you, on my arrival at Austin, at the close of the past season's field work, I herewith submit a brief resume of the geological reconnoissance made by me in the northwestern part of the State, since the publication of the Second Annual Report of the State Survey.

The territory embraced in this resume includes those portions of the State of Texas and Territory of New Mexico, known as the "Llano Estacado, or Staked Plains."

It is intended only to show such results of my geological observations, as to the general character and economic resources and capacities of the district, as are considered definitely settled at the close of the field work, and it is intended to follow this brief statement with a more amplified and specific report in the future.

In making geological observations one cannot always be restricted by political and arbitrary lines, as it is very often the case that facts needed for the solution of some geological or economical question can only be had by an examination of a district outside of the political boundary within which the question is of importance and interest, and the necessity of going outside the given territory becomes imperative when, as was the case in this instance, the territory beyond has never been examined and reported upon by a competent observer.

The subject to be investigated, which took me beyond the State boundary, was that of the possibility of obtaining artesian water on the Staked Plains. a question of very great importance to that part of Texas.

It is a conceded fact, that if there be a supply of artesian water beneath the high plateau of the Plains, the source of that supply would be in the upturned edges of the underlying strata along the foot of the mountains in New Mexico, and no one would attempt a definite solution of the question without first knowing the geological formation between the western escarpment of the Staked Plains and the foot of the mountain range beyond.

We found a district of country, between the foot of the Plains and the mountain range, three hundred miles long and from seventy-five to one hundred miles wide. This area had been almost entirely unexplored by any geologist. Prof. Jules Marcou traveled hurriedly across the upper or northern end of this district in 1852, and Dr. Shumard and others traveled across the southern end of it in 1855; but aside