reservoir from an immense subterranean flow at a depth of about 100 feet below the surface, and is of a high grade of chemical purity.

Three churches represent our temples for worship-the Catholic, Episcopal, and Methodist Episcopal. Each society is thoroughly organized and supported by representative citizens. The buildings present handsome exteriors and are comfortably furnished within.

There is scarcely a civic society known to the category of fraternal organization that is not represented here. We have the Masonic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Independent Order of Red Men, with all their auxiliaries, besides many others.

Musical, literary, and social organizations abound without number here, and a finely equipped opera house furnishes a place in which to witness the performances of the leading operatic and dramatic companies on the road.

GUADALUPE COUNTY.

Puerto de Luna, the county seat of Guadalupe County, has a $20,000 court-house, several large stores, good schools, and about 1,500 people, and is the center of a fiue stock and agricultural section. The Pecos River, with its excellent ditch system, furnishes an abundant water supply to this section of great promise. The climate is mild and the altitude is such, being about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, that a more desirable locality can not be found for sheep and stock raising. Sheep raising has been a very important industry here, particularly with the native people. Cattle raising has become one of the principal industries, and it is meeting with much success. The mineral lands found constitute gold, silver, copper, coal, and iron. Coal has also been found and is of good quality.

Oats, potatoes, barley, and timothy are chiefly grown, and the ranch houses and homes for live-stock raising are numerous; as a live-stock country, the locality is specially adapted to the raising of horses.

But it is as a pleasure and health resort that this locality has become famous. The scenic effects are grand. The country is wild and broken and much game abounds, including bear and deer, while the streams are literally alive with mountain trout, running as high as 5 pounds in weight.

Splendid pine forests cover the mountains and mesas, and the timber industry is an important one.

LINCOLN COUNTY.

The year ending June 30, 1897, found the mining interests of Lincoln County considerably improved over preceding years. The old mines were generally worked, and several new ones opened. The leading mines at Whiteoaks are the North Homestake, South Homestake, and the Old Abe, and to this list may be added the Rip Van Winkle, which is beginning to show a very good body of ore. The North Homestake is an old producer, and a great deal of ore has been mined from it during the past year. These properties are all gold propositions and free milling, but perhaps the most satisfactory progress in mining during the past year in this county has been at Nogals, a distance of 17 miles from Whiteoaks. At this point two splendid mines have been opened, both rich and making regular bulletin returns. They are the American and the Helen Rae. There are also in that locality several other mines that are making a good showing. It can be safely predicted that that locality will be a big gold producer during the coming year.

The Bonito country in the White Mountains of Lincoln County is also making a good showing, and as the country there is known to be full of fissure lodes it is confidently expected that the coming year will witness some rich developments there.

The coal fields of Lincoln County are numerous; in fact, a good portion of the western part of our county seems to be underlaid with coal. The prominent localities in which coal is found are Salado, Malaga, Three Rivers, and Whiteoaks and vicinity. A purchase price of about $32,000 was paid for coal land at Salado during the past year.

The cattle and sheep industries in this county and section of the Territory are again coming to the front; decided improvement is seen in both as to price and increase in number. There is a general advance in all enterprises in this county, and we look for a prosperous year for 1897.

MORA COUNTY.

There are in Mora County 22 school districts with a school population of 925, the average attendance being 338 males and 202 females. The schools of this county are in a flourishing condition.

The county has many fertile and quite extensive valleys, all under cultivation, the land being considered the finest in New Mexico, yet the price is within the reach of all, being from $30 to $50 per acre.

The town of Mora is the county seat. It is situate in the very heart of Mora Valley, has an excellent stone court-house, which cost the county the sum of $75,000; also a very substantial stone jail building, a Protestant mission school, a Catholic convent conducted by the Sisters of Loretto, good and well-conducted public schools, two good hotels, and some wealthy stores.

The principal industries of the county are farming in the western part (this being the best section of the county adapted to agriculture), stock raising, and mining, but the stock raising is essentially the principal occupation of the majority of its inhabitants.

The last official returns of assessable property show 1,775 horses and mules, 7,000 cattle, and 71,400 head of sheep, with an aggregate value of $132,356, the assessable property reaching the sum of $1,085,185.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the eastern portion of the county, and a survey has been made with a view of constructing an electric railroad from Las Vegas to the towns of Mora and thence to Taos and Elizabethtown, the construction of which line seems to be an assured fact.

THE PROGRESS MADE POSSIBLE IN THE PECOS VALLEY BY

IRRIGATION.

The past year has indeed been one of progress, of success, and of advancement in that portion of New Mexico incorporated within the Pecos Valley. Without undue elation, this portion of the great "Sunshine Territory" can claim that it has led all other localities in the scope and the completeness of its new enterprises. There are many reasons why this is so, too many, in fact, to be condensed within a brief report; but perhaps the two greatest factors which have contrib uted to the present prosperity of this fertile valley and brighten with golden promise the immediate years are the mammoth and complete irrigation system, under whose protecting care the farmers till and produce never-failing crops, and the extreme adaptability of the highly generative soil to the culture of sugar beets containing a high percent