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from their published reports the geological features of the country were not known, and therefore I could only get the facts desired by going into the district myself.

BOUNDARY OF THE STAKED PLAINS.

So far as I am informed, no one has heretofore attempted to give the boundaries of what is known as the Staked Plains. The high plateau called by this name has been known to be in the northwestern part of Texas and the eastern part of New Mexico, but just what part of the country is entitled to that appellation is not so well known.

During the past summer I traveled entirely around this high plateau, and I am enabled to give its boundaries with a tolerable degree of accuracy.

The eastern, northern and western limits are marked by high precipitous escarpments, ranging in height from one hundred to four hundred feet. The white, precipitous cliffs can be seen for a long distance as they are approached, and the outstanding peaks look like huge fortifications.

The southern limit is not so well marked, but ends in a gradual slope, following the inclination of the strata.

The eastern boundary of the Staked Plains may properly be said to begin at Big Springs, although there is a wide valley of erosion between the high Cretaceous ridge that extends from the Cretaceous area of Middle Texas, just south of and parallel with the line of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, leaving a broad valley of erosion between that ridge and the Cretaceous area of Southern Texas. South of this ridge there is a continuation of the high escarpment of the eastern border of the Staked Plains, which extends to a point twenty miles south of San Angelo.

The extension of the eastern boundary of the Staked Plains northward from Big Springs passes through Borden county near the center, and thence crossing the Double Mountain fork of the Brazos river about fifteen miles west of the mouth of the Yellow House canyon. Thence to Dockum, and along the western line of Motley county, crossing the Prairie Dog fork of Red River a few miles above the mouth of Mulberry canyon, and crossing the line of the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad at Goodnight Station, and thence to the Canadian river.

The northern boundary is marked by a high escarpment along the south side of the Canadian river, and at a distance of from ten to twenty miles from it. I have traced this escarpment as far westward as the road leading from Tucumcari to Fort Sumner, on the Pecos river.

In traveling southward from Tucumcari Mountain to Fort Sumner,