Curious Features of New Mexico.
THERE is one remarkable case in New Mexico where the lost tributaries are plentiful but the main stream does not exist. This is in a valley which lies between the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers. The valley begins near the Sandia mountains; and shuts out the streams on each side by broken mountain chains. It is a well-defined valley, not very broad, but having a length of perhaps 300 miles. Flowing into it, especially on the western side near the upper end, and on the eastern side toward the lower end, are numerous lost tributaries; but the primary stream has so completely disappeared that its bed can only be found at intervals. In this valley lie the ruins of the Gran Quivira, the existence of which is not only attested by the ruins themselves but also by the accounts of the earliest Spanish settlers. The records of the Spanish up to the latter part of the seventeenth century, when they were expelled by the Indians, are incomplete, as the Indians destroyed all that was left behind. That the Gran Quivira was well known to them, however, is shown by the fact that the most prominent ruin there is that of a church. There is now no water for many miles from the river. That there must have been once, can well be granted, for no large city would have been built by human beings at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles from a scanty water supply. The valley may be named from this city, and would then be the Gran Quivira Valley. About half-way down the valley it is broken by a long, narrow, thin layer of lava, now much broken up, and making a desolate region, locally known as the Mal-pais, or "bad lands." The crater from which the lava was derived was near the northern end of the Mal-pais. Just above the Mal-pais an old river-bed is reached at the depth of about 250 feet; below it the river-bed, when found, is at a slight depth. Southwest of the Apache reservation the old river-bed runs into a large salt marsh. A stream of no mean size seems to have once run down this valley. Not only has it now disappeared, but its bed is covered by lava and loose soil sometimes to great depths. As to the cause of the disappearance, it may have some connection with a tradition of the Indians, which tells of a year of fire, when this valley was so filled with flames and poisonous gases as to be made uninhabitable. When this occurred the chronology of the Indians is not perfect enough to tell us. That it was long ago is attested by the depth to which the old bed is covered by detritus, probably washed down from the mountains, and by trees of considerable size, which are found in some places in it. But that it was not so extremely long ago that it became entirely uninhabitable is made probable by the comparatively late desertion of the Gran Quivira. It is entirely possible that the Indian year of fire may have long preceded the drying up of the valley in which Gran Quivira was situated.—Popular Science Monthly.