The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-28 00:00:00

The idea we have formed of the Alpine tract of
Colorado is a very steep wall of mountain, extend-
ing across north and south, cutting the Territory in' o
halves, the eastern portion being of rolling prairie,
and the western of high table laud, the ranges
dropping away westward from the giant wall, in
irregular, confused masses of mountains, which form
the grandest scenery in America, perhaps of the
world. The regularity of the eastern slope with the
great plains at the base, stretching into an indefinite
space, contrasts strongly with the ranges penetrating
westward into Utah. The rivers flow through gorges
in every direction ; here, roaring torrents ; there,
foaming waterfalls ; then smoothly gliding through
an open park. As Utah is neared the chains sink
in elevation, the tumbling mountain brooks are
gathered into streams of magnitude, and flow-
ing along wide valleys, or bursting their way
through table lands, walled to the right and
to the left by precipices sometimes nearly 3,000
feet in height, or rushing between hills lined above
by eternal snow. The country is little known ; but
Summit County, for instance, at the western extre-
mity of Colorado, is an elevated, fertile plain, well
watered, with numerous lakes and isolated peaks
covered with timber, and it is through such a coun-
try that Colonel Powell's expedition, for the main
part, passed, so farat least as he has described. Many
of our London and Paris readers ought to know the
class of scenery, from Bierstadt's picture of " A
Storm in the Rocky Mountains," lately exhibited in
both capitals, for it was taken from among the moun-
tains behind Denver, and it was on those hill sides
that that celebrated artist gathered so many of his
studies. As in the Himalayah, what most impresses
the traveller is the magnitude, the stupendous
heights, depths, distances ; the giant size of the
Mks, the precipice?, and the ilisignific
erections of man when thus brought into jux-
taposition with Nature's handiwork, placed be-
fore him in that form wherein he cannot help
feeling its most sublime impression. When glanc-
ing over a map of the Colorado mountains, the
repetition of the name elk is not likely to escape
attention. Elk Mountain, Elk Range, Elk Val-
ley, Elk River, Elk's Head ; and those who desire
to ascertain the reason, for these are the names
given by hunters and trappers, should read Town-
shend's " Ten Thousand Miles of Travel and Sport."
After his expedition with the United States troops
over the rolling prairies of Nebraska, Kansas, and
Colorado, he penetrated, with a party of U.S.A.
officers, into the North Park, and the chase was prin-
cipally after the elk. His description of the Alpine
scenery is graphic, which he gives iu connection with
the sport, although Indians at the time being on the
move, had so disturbed the game that they had in a
measure cleared the valley, which he represents as
quite flat, about 30 miles long by 15 broad, covered
with a nutritious grass, but without a tree. The
lower portion of the hills, which rise abruptly
around, are however densely wooded, and in these
forests the frightened game s-ek shelter. The de-
struction of the elk is so pitiless that the animal
must soon cease to exist. Gazing into a deep canon
that sportsman saw the skeletons of 26 bleaching
below ; 27 had been driven into that trap, from
which as there was no exit, only one of the herd
escaped, while the waste is shown by the fact that
the hunters, leaving the entrails, found the animals
when they returned next day in a state of putrefac-

ion and useless. The recent excavatioris of the
East London Water Company have led to the dis-
covery of bones which prove that the elk as well as
the reindeer inhabited the forests around Looddn,
but now Colorado is their nearest haunt. There
seems to be a doubt whether the elk has ever been
discovered fossil in France. But Professor Owen
remarks that we owe to Julius Caesar the valuable
record of both the reindeer (Bos Cervus) and the
elk (Alces) in the Black Forest and conterminous
parts of Germany at the period of his campaigns.
Herds comprising vast numbers were seen by Cap-
tain Townshend in Colorado, as well as numerous
antelope and bears, besides a great variety of smal-
ler animals and birds. Among the bears the grisly
still holds a formidable place, though he is not often
encountered. Solitary parties of huntsmen may be
met with, wearing fringed hunting shirts of buckskin,
with home-span trowsers tuckel into strong hunt-
ing boots. These parties frequently conad into col-
lision with Indians, but the regular Indian inhabi-
tants of the mountains of Colorado, the Utes, are
far from being a formidable class. A correspon-
dent writing to the Sprinfeld Republican from
Denver, on the 16th August, spoke of a large ga-
thering of them then encamped on the bluff above
the city. Some of their chiefs had on that morning
arrived with a bunch of scalps torn from the heads
of hostile Indians of the plain, and the tribe fol-
lowed the scalps of their enemies through the
streets, shouting a song of victory to the accom-
paniment of drums, winding up the evening with
a scalp dance. They do not, says the correspon-
dent, look at all bloodthirsty, though they steal and
beg " till you can't rest." This is a sort of cant
phrase in Colorado. " I asked an old settler if
raspberries were plenty, to which he replied, " Oh,
raspberries, till you can't rest." A young lady,
speaking of another girl about to be married, ex-
claimed, " Oh, you should see her outfit ! dresses
and dresses, till you can't rest !" But the days of
the bearded Nimrods who swallowed their raw
whisky to the Indian salutation of " Hough" are
numbered, for their solitudes are 'being invaded,
and the scenery which Bierstadt sketched will
soon be familiar to both American and European
eyes. Already the American tide of travel seta
that way. Numerous parties seeking both health
and pleasure were within the Alpine range when
the correspondent wrote, among them Miss Green,
the distinguished modiste of Springfield, who intends
still further to improve her taste by extending her
trip even to the Sandwich Islands ! Vice-President
Colfax and a large party, among whom are Mr.
and Mrs. Bowles, General Schofield and a party
of military men, Mr. Beach, formerly of the New
York Sun, and many others, besides the Hayden and
Whitney scientific parties, were also in the moun-
tains. But they are only the pioneers, for Denver
will shortly be connected with the Eastern States by
two lines. The Kansas Pacific, open to Sheridan,
will soon be finished to Denver, and from Denver
to Cheyenne, where it will connect with the Union
Pacific; the work will be completed by the Kansas
Pacific and the Pennsylvanian Central Compa-
nies, by which means they will make their through
line complete from Philadelphia by St. Louis to
Denver, the Parks of Colorado being thus brought
within visiting distance of London. The corres-
pondent says, " Thus there seems to be a sure
prospect of the development of this rich terri-
tory, sound and healthy, if not rapid. There are
great chances for farming and stock-raising, for
the manuficture of woollen goods, and the mak-
ing of iron and its manufacture into iron goods.
The ores, the coal, the rich lands, the unlimited
pasturage, the abundant water power, are all here,
and all in the right places. I cannot doubt that
eastern capital and enterprise will hasten to im-
prove these great opportunities so soon as these
railroads are built." The attractions of the " Al-
pine range of Colorado, which has been likened
to the hump on the camel's back in reference to its
position in the Alpine system of America, are a
fine'exhilarating healthy, mountain climate, with
rich valleys of great fertility, producing all that
can be grown in Europe ; scenery so surpass-
ingly beautiful that it will draw to the region the
travel of the world ; as well as extraordinary mine-
ral wealth and hidden stores of other kinds. The
drawbacks, besides those inseparable from mountain
ranges, are the want in common with all that divi-
sion of the continent of regular rains, and the con-
sequent necessity for irrigation ; together with the
periodical plague of grasshoppers. Kansas is rapidly
filling up, but there are attractions to many emi-
grants which will induce them to pass by the genial
fertile level lands of the " Bleeding" State for the
Alpine region. and if the foot of a Swiss or of a
Ilighlanaer there on his native heather, it
would, at any rate, be on a grander hill side than
that whereon he had been born. An American
paper remarks on Powell's expedition :—" It is
worthy of note, that while one party of our young
men has been attracting the world's attention in a
rowing match abroad, another has been performing
an unparalleled voyage through the great Colorado
canon at home. Future generations alone will be
able to estimate aright the comparative value of
these achievements."