g water.

"A case directly supporting the assumption of the failure of
the water is furnished at a place about thirty-five miles
northerly from the Gran Quivira, known as 'La Cienega.' At
this point a stream of water, furnished by two springs, and
running to a distance of about a mile at all seasons of the
year, which has never been known to be dry within the memory
of the oldest inhabitant, has, within the last year,
entirely disappeared; and even digging to a considerable
depth in the bed of the late springs fails to find the
stream, or the channel by which it has so mysteriously
disappeared.

"To those at all familiar with the cretaceous formation of
the south-eastern portion of New Mexico, and who have seen
the numerous rivers that flow hundreds of inches of water
within a few yards of where they make their first
appearance, and the total disappearance of these streams
within a few miles, who have seen the water flowing in caves
and subterraneous streams, and the fact that the whole
country is cavernous, can easily imagine the possibility of
a stream acting upon its cretaceous bed, and eventually
wearing a channel, to connect with some immense cavern, and
disappearing at once from the surface beyond all reach of
human power.

"To the south of the Gran Quivira, at a distance of about
twenty miles, commences a _mal pais_, an immense bed of
lava, sixty miles in length from north to south, and
covering an area of five hundred square miles. To the
south-west of this commences a salt marsh, which has an area
of fifty square miles, and which is fed entirely by
subterranean streams from the Sacramento and White
Mountains, receiving without doubt by the same means the
drainage of this plain for a hundred miles to the north. The
above facts are, I think, sufficient to account for the
absence of water at the present time near Gran Quivira.

"As to what became of the inhabitants of this place, as well
as those of Abo and Quarra to the north-west,--towns that
are coeval with the Gran Quivira,--we can only conjecture.
The most reasonable conclusion that can be arrived at is
that they were exterminated by the Spaniards upon their
reoccupation of the country. Though history is silent as to
the complete operations of the Spaniards upon their return
to New Mexico, yet it is a fact established by documentary
evidence that a relentless war w