Temperature.—Fig. 6 gives a record of the temperature at Monterrey from 1901 to 1909, inclusive. These records were taken at an altitude of 520 m. It will be noted that the lowest recorded temperatures are in January and February. The lowest during these years was 24° Fahr., in January, 1905. The monthly maxima vary between 80 and 110° Fahr. The mean annual temperature is 72.65° Fahr. (The mean annual barometer is 28.2 in.)

Fig. 6.—Diagram Of Temperature Variation At Monterrey, 1901-09.

Available Sources of Supply.

The question of the best sources from which Monterrey should be supplied with potable water was one that had been long under discussion, and was the subject of many investigations prior to the granting of the present concession. Several of the original schemes called for an impounding reservoir in the Cañon of Santa Catarina and it was on the assumption that a dam would be built that a clause was inserted in the concession for the purpose of making its construction obligatory. The general character of the physical and geological conditions surrounding Monterrey has already been referred to. A thorough study of these conditions proved that no suitable site for impounding the Santa Catarina River could be found, apart from the fact that periodically this river is subject to enormous floods which tear through the steep cañon with tremendous velocity.

At the site originally proposed for the dam, a considerable underflow was found, and later investigations, carried out under the present concession, proved that, although borings were carried to a depth of 54 m., bed-rock could not be found, the strata being composed of gravels, conglomerate and sand. Assuming that such a dam could

have been built, the quality of the water draining from a comparatively barren water-shed, on which many thousands of goats are pastured, would have made its filtration an absolute necessity before it could be delivered to the consumers.

The various available sources from which water could be delivered to the city by gravity were investigated by Mr. F. S. Hyde, in the autumn of 1905, and also by J. D. Schuyler, M. Am. Soc. C. E., who was afterward retained as Consulting Engineer for the Company. The various investigations made from time to time showed that the question of a satisfactory supply was one of extreme difficulty, requiring prolonged observation and study, more particularly into the character of the underground sources of supply.

One of the chief characteristics of many of the streams in the State of Nuevo León, is their disappearance and reappearance at different points along their routes, and the Santa Catarina River, under normal conditions, as already remarked, is a very notable example of a river which is very dry at the surface for many kilometers of its length. In the writer's opinion, the waters of this and similar rivers in the State pass through many open caverns underground, so that experience gained in the investigation of underflow waters in other places would be insufficient to determine the quantity passing at any point along the river if ascertained by merely computing it from the velocity of the underflow and the area of the water-bearing gravels. The rainfall on the water-shed of the Santa Catarina River is probably 25% greater than at Monterrey, and all ordinary rains sink rapidly into the limestone soils and quickly disappear. In another water-shed of a very similar character, namely, that of the Rio Blanco, in the southern part of the State, the underflow waters appear at the surface at a place called Mezquital, where a metamorphosed sandstone barrier prevents them from disappearing underground. At this point the normal quantity of water is about 5,660 liters (200 cu. ft.) per sec., but it gradually disappears, and a few kilometers below it has sunk to an insignificant stream, finally disappearing altogether for about 20 km. In the neighborhood of Monterrey similar conditions exist with regard to the surface-water supplies, and investigations, therefore, were directed toward obtaining unpolluted supplies from springs and underground sources.

Santa Catarina Sources.—The chief points from which it was