the time when their claims will rise in value from a few
dollars to as many hundred thousands by an annexation to the United
States. Mexican operators in grants have not been idle. They have
ascertained what the United States courts call a title, and have been
providing themselves with the necessary parchments,[79] while American
operators, in connection with them, have been equally busy.

Chihuahua and Sonora are the States or Departments to be affected by
our Pacific Railroad. Sonora is the most valuable of the two, not only
on account of its inexhaustible supply of silver, but also on account
of its delightful climate and agricultural resources. It is like the
land of the blessed in Oriental story. California does not surpass it
in fertility or in climate. With industry and thrift, it could sustain
a population equal to that of all Mexico. The table-lands and the
valleys are so near together that the products of all climates flourish
almost side by side. Food for man and beast was so easily procured that
the descendants of the early settlers sunk into effeminacy long before
the breaking out of the great Apache war of the last century. Drought,
however, makes the formation of artificial lakes and reservoirs
necessary to the full development of its agricultural wealth.

CHIHUAHUA AND SONORA.

But it is the remarkable abundance of silver which distinguishes it
above all other countries except Chihuahua. I have described, in a
former chapter, the long and laborious processes by which silver is
produced from the ore in the southern mines, and also the great depths
from which it is raised. In Sonora, silver is most commonly extracted
from the ore by the simple process of fusion. But in the district of
Batopilos, it is, or rather was, found pure. If we should adopt the
theory that veins of ore extend through the entire length of Mexico,
then I should say that they "crop out" in Sonora, or, rather, that the
silver _lodes_ which are here above the surface dip toward the city of
Mexico, and also northward toward California. The mountain chain which
traverses California under the name of the _Sierra Nevada_ appears to
be only a continuation or reappearance of the mountain chain here
called _Sierra Madre_ (Mother Range), which forms the boundary between
the departments of Sonora and Chihuahua.

On the western declivity of this mountain range, the most remarkable
illustration of this fact of cropping out is found at Batopil