Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan. Page: 108 of 368

                                
LLANO ESTACADOo

acterized by the same peculiarities, with the water issuing from it invariably
bitter and unpalatable.
The Arkansas, Canadian, Brazos, Colorado, and Pecos rivers, pass
through the formation, and a similar taste is imparted to the waters of
all. Several of these also have their sources in the same elevated tablelands
as Red river, and where they make their exit from this plateau
their beds are confined to vast sluices or cainons, the sides of which rise
very abruptly to an enormous height above the surface of the water.
The barren mesa, in which these streams take their rise, extends from
the Canadian river, in a southerly course, to near the confluence of the
Pecos with the Rio Grande, some four hundred miles, between the 32d
and 47th parallels of north latitude. It is in places nearly two hundred
miles in width, and is embraced within the 101st and 104th meridians
of west longitude. The approximate elevation of this plain above the
sea, as determined with the barometer, is two thousand four hundred
and fifty feet. It is mueh elevated above the surrounding country, very
smooth and level, and spreads out in every direction as far as the eye
can penetrate, without a tree, shrub, or any other herbage to intercept
the vision. The traveller, in passing over it, sees nothing but one vast,
dreary, and monotonous waste of barren solitude. It is an ocean of
desert prairie, where the voice of man is seldom heard, and where no
living being permanently resides. The almost total absence of water
causes all animals to shun it: even the Indians do not venture to cross
it except at two or three points, where they find a few small ponds of
water. I was told in New Mexico that, many years since, the Mexicans
marked out a route with stakes across this plain, where they found
water; and hence the name by which it is known throughout Mexico,
of "El Llano Estacado," or the " Staked Plain."