> //i7 020 994 877 1 Holllnger Corp. pH8.5 ANNUAL REPORT CAPTAIN A. A. HUMPHREYS, TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, /' IK CHAHQB OF OFFICE OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS. WAR DEPARTMENT DECEMBEE, 1858. WASHINGTON: 1859. S^3 \>- „r|-l «u^ 16 ma — REPORT FROM THE OFFICE OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS. War Department, Office Explorations and Surveys, Washington^ November 20, 1858. Sir: 1 submit the following annual report upon the operations of the department carried on under this office. I. the experiment of sinking artesian wells upon the public lands. In my last annual report to the department (November 30, 185T,) it was stated that the expedition to continue 'the experiment of sink- ing artesian wells upon the public lands, assigned by the department to Captain John Pope, Topographical Engineers, under instructions of May 5, arrived at the former camp on the Pecos on the 2d of Sep- tember, 1857, and resumed work upon the well which had been bored to the depth of eight hundred and sixty-one feet the previous year. The operations at this point were carried on for a year, when they were terminated by authority of the department, it having been con- sidered that they had demonstrated that, with any reasonable amount of expenditure, artesian wells on the Llano Estacado, and plains of similar formation and position, are impracticable. The depth attained was one thousand and fifty feet. The work was continued during the winter, which, from its unusual severity, increased the labors and hardships of the party, exposed, as it was, in tents on the bleak plain. The difficulties encountered were far greater than had been anticipated by Captain Pope, but were constantly met with skill, zeal, and perseverance. The impracticability of carrying the boring to a greater depth with the means provided, is attributable to the incoherent nature of the soft sandstones, marls, and clays, which, throughout the whole depth of the well, fell in and packed so firmly around the tubing, that, in forcing it down, the threads of the connecting screws were stripped off, and the tubes themselves split and crushed. From the same cause, when it became necessary to withdraw the tubes upon the acci- dental loss in the Avell of the heavy iron rod connected with the cut- ting tools, and subsequently of the slips holding the cutters, long delays occurred; and in one of these cases the well could only be cleared by boring and spearing up a part of the tubing. Near the bottom of the well thin seams of hard limestone were met, the jagged edges of which cut the wooden rods in two, and bent the iron rods so that they speedily became worthless. The water used in the boiler of the engine contained material in suspension that formed in six days a hard incrustation half an inch thick, which could only be removed by chiseling. The fine sand in suspension cut away the valves, and the acids in solution rapidly de- stroyed the boiler and other iron work. Much time was thus lost, and new machinery could not be obtained nearer than New Orleans. Such, in brief, were the obstacles encountered in sinking the well 4 to the depth of one thousand and fifty feet; beyond that depth it could not be carried. Captain Pope expresses the belief that wells might be bored to a much greater depth on the Llano by using heavy cast iron tubes of large diameter, and suitable driving apparatus, but that the cost of transporting this heavy material would preclude its use. Upon this I can express no opinion, as the dimensions, weight, &c., of this tubing are not stated. The reports received from Captain Pope do not specify how many new supplies of water were met during the last operations. One new supply, described as a strong stream pouring into the well, is marked on the diagram as entering it twohundredfeet below the lowest water previously encountered, (in 1856,) which, coming from a source six hundred and seventy-six feet below, rose to within one hundred and ten feet of the surface. As it is not stated that the water from this new supply rose higher in the well than during the previous year, it is presumed that it did not. In Captain Pope's letter of the 4th of June, 1858, mention is made of powerful streams of water pouring into the well without rising to the surface. This would indicate that they find vent at lower levels than that of the surface of the Llano at the well, and would lead us to apprehend the same result for streams that might be encountered at greater depths, and to doubt whether the water would flow out at the surface even if the boring were carried to the depth originally intended. Captain Pope does not appear to entertain any such doubt, biit, on the contrary, explicitly states in his report of the 22d of August last, that his opinions about the certainty of getting water to overflow at the surface are unchanged. The suggestions of Captain Pope, in his report of the 4th of June, that the work upon the well near the Pecos should be discontinued, and the next experiment be made upon or near the route between Anton Chico and Albuquerque, were approved by the department, and instructions to that effect were sent him on the 10th of July. At the date of his last communication (September 28) the party had ar- rived at Galisteo, and commenced the experimenton the plain between Anton Chico and Albuquerque, at the intersection of the road between those two places with the road from SantJi Fe to Fort Stanton In order to exhibit the nature and extent of the operations of Cap- tain Pope, I submit herewith copies of his instructions and reports of progress. It is only by their perusal that his labors can be properly appreciated. II. —EXPLORATION OF THE BIO COLORADO OF THE WEST. The expedition for the exploration of the Rio Colorado of the West, commanded by First Lieutenant J. C. Ives, Topographical Engineers, has completed its field operations. Lieutenant Ives returned to Washington in August, and is now employed in preparing the report and maps. I submit herewith a communication from him, showing briefly a portion of the results of the expedition. In the last annual report it was stated that the expedition was at San Francisco, en route for the field. The supplies and property of the party, and also the materials for constructing a small iron steam- boat, were sent from San Francisco to the mouth of the Colorado in one of the government vessels. They arrived there on the 2d of December. Under serious disadvantages the steamboat was put together, and on the 31st of December the ascent of the river was commenced. On the 11th of March a point was reached nearly five hundred miles from the mouth, (in lat. 36° 06',) beyond which it was impracticable to proceed in boats. It was intended that the examina- tion of the river should be made in the season of low water, and during the progress of the party the river proved to be lower than had ever been known. In this worst stage the navigation was found to be difficult, but is pronounced entirely practicable, for the distance stated, for steamboats of suitable construction and of but two feet draught. The trip from the mouth to the head of navigation will requ?re from ten to twenty days, and the round trip from three to six weeks. There is an abundance of wood for fuel on the river. From the head of navigation to the nearest point on the Spanish trail, or Mormon road to Utah, the distance is forty miles; about one hundred miles to the point where that road crosses the Muddy river, a tributary of the Virgen; two hundred and twenty miles to the first Mormon settlement in the Great Salt Lake basin, and five hundred miles to the Great Salt Lake. The head of navigation is about seventy miles above the Mojave valley. Examinations should be made for a better route between the head of navigation and the Virgen, since, for the space of sixty miles before reaching the Muddy river, no water is found on the Mormon road. By using the Colorado as a channel for forwarding supplies, there would be "a saving in land transportation to Salt Lake of seven hun- Defiance of six hundred miles, and to Fort dred miles ; to Fort Buchanan of eleven hundred miles. The chains of mountains that cross the navigable portion of the Colorado were found, like those of California and Sonora, to possess great mineral wealth. Rich deposits of silver, copper, and lead were observed, and a great abundance of iron: but gold and mercury only in small quantities. After the completion of the reconnaissance of the river, explora- tions were conducted by land along the 36th parallel, on the plateau region through which the upper Colorado and its tributaries canon, the greater part of which was entirely unknown. Extending over a space of four degrees of longitude, these plateaus were found cut into im- mense chasms, thousands of feet deep, forming intricate systems of abvsscs many miles in width, and utterly impassable. Through these chasms the streams just mentioned ran, and, wherever seen, foamed and surged with the" rapidity of their descent. Near'the eastern border of the table lands, which extend from the Colorado to the mountains of the Sierra Madre, the Moquis towns are found. They were visited by the expedition, which arrived at Albuquerque about the 1st of June, and was there broken up.