s, and the run-off is consequently
excessively rapid. Nevertheless proper storage of water in reservoirs
during times of heavy rain, especially upon the great plateau, could
accomplish much, and such enterprises should be exceedingly profitable,
for, in certain regions, water is almost "worth its weight in silver."
In another place I have made mention of the irrigation system of the
River Nazas, which may be compared to the Nile on a small scale. The
waters of this river, in times of normal flow, are entirely exhausted
by the numerous irrigation canals which lead therefrom, traversing the
plains for many miles, and conducting water to the large cotton
plantations for which the region is famous. This region is known as "La
Laguna," and its great area and depth of fertile soil are the result of
an ancient lake-basin. So valuable is the water here that not many
years ago feuds were common between the large cotton-growers of the
district, who continually strove to deprive each other of the water in
order to benefit themselves. Blowing-up of diverting dams and weirs
with dynamite even took place, and things reached such a pitch that the
Government were obliged to step in and establish a controlling "River
Nazas Commission," under whose administration a proper regimen of the
waters and irrigation system was enforced. Among the great estates of
this region may be mentioned that of Tlahualilo, with which British
enterprise is connected. The canal belonging to this company is some
fifty miles long, and has a large flowing capacity, and there are
numerous others of less volume. I spent some time in this interesting
region, and so became acquainted with its peculiar conditions. The
Nazas rises in the mountains, and has no outlet to the sea, as
elsewhere described; and, dry in the dry season, its bed becomes a
raging flood in the wet, a spate or wave of water filling it up from
bank to bank, 300 feet wide, in half an hour. This great flood
principally runs to waste in the Parras lagoon, and were its waters
diverted and stored at higher elevations they would be of incalculable
value in the increase of the available cotton-growing area. A project
is on foot at present for a work of this nature, a barrage on the
Nazas.

The name Tlahualilo, a liquid-flowing aboriginal designation, means
"The Devil"! The river gives life to dozens of large cotton-growing
_haciendas_, whose owners have become millionaires, as a rule, thanks
to this min