Page 75 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

Parry wrote the introduction for the Survey’s description of the botany of the boundary in the survey report, in which he states:
“The usually difficult task of constructing a phytological map might here be performed with comparative ease, as the observer, little perplexed by a great variety or gradual blending of forms, involuntarily associates particular localities with the predominating and characteristic vegetable productions. Thus one who has ever traversed the desert table lands of the Upper Rio Grande will not fail to unite in his recollection of these tracts the dull foliage of the Creosote bush, the long thorny wands of the Fouquieria, the palm-like Yucca, and the crimson-flowered and spine-armed Cereus. Still less can any one, who has seen the giant cactus of the Gila in its perfection, ever forget the wild and singular features of the country in which it grows. The distinctness with which the botanical districts are defined gives an unpleasant sameness to the scenery of this country. The extensive plains exhibit a monotonous succession of the same forms, and each mountain slope and ravine presents us a collection of plants quite like those we have so often seen in other and similar localities. Indeed, the botanist in these regions, knowing what to expect in each different situation, soon loses his zeal, and becomes intent upon little else than overcoming space.”
Less than an overwhelming appreciation of the diversity of the place.
On November 26, 1852, Parry wrote to Engelmann, giving him an update on his activities. The first page of that letter is shown
on the following page and the full document can be accessed at the link. Although Parry wrote the introduction to the volume on botany Volume of the Survey Report he saw himself as a geologist. In the first page of his letter he notes “I was induced to volunteer in its exploration principally with a view to geology.” He wrote the geological reports of the Survey with assistance from Arthur Schott.
At page 22 of the Geology Volume, Parry notes:
“Copper is quite frequently found in connexion with porphyritic rocks. The most usual form of the ore is that of green malachite and red oxide. The locality best known is that of Santa Rita del Cobre, which was profitably worked about 20 years ago. Analysis of ore from this locality exhibited a yield of 75 per cent, of copper. — (See analysis by Professor T. Antisell.)
No mine of copper is at present worked in any part of the region under examination.
Gold is said to be sparingly found at various localities, in connexion with diluvial deposits, derived from adjacent igneous rocks. It is here met with in a finely disseminated state, and has never yet been found in sufficient quantities to yield a fair return for the labor expended . . .”
Report of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey...William H. Emory, Vol. 1, 1857, p. XVII (detail)
74