The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-16 00:00:00

COLORADO.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
No. 11.

The Sahwatch, or San Luis Lake, is said to be,
as we noticed in our previous article, without a
visible outlet, yet fresh. As nineteen mountain
streams flow into the lake, and as the climate at
such an elevation is not sufficiently warm to cause
much evaporation, certainly nothing in proportion
to the body of water received, the supposition is that
the surplus escapes through subterranean channels.
This lake is probably one of the sources of that river
said to flow south beneath the Rocky Mountains
till it arises in the Gulf of Mexico, and there, in
conjunction with one similar, flowing north through
the Andes, to cause the Gulf Stream. Commis-
sioner Wilson, in his Report on the Public Lands,
says " that from the primary rocks outcropping at
the mural summits to the sedimentary drift covered
with soil, and varnished with vegetation around
San Luis Lake, all the elements of the geological
series seem to be represented, forming the San Luis
Park into a sort of geological cabinet. The crevices
of secondary rocks on the mountain sides are charged
with the richest ores, the source of the golden detritus
found in the gulches just below." Properly to un-
derstand these Parks, or, indeed, to comprehend accu-
rately the geography of America, it should be known
that they are merely parts of the table land which
extends 4,000 miles in length south-east and north-
west, containing an area of two millions of square
miles, its average altitude being 6,000 feet above
the sea. The City of Mexico, as well as the new
Jerusalem of the Mormons, as indeed Chihuahua,
are situated on this plateau, its area being carried
through South America, though narrowed to a mere
strip towards the Isthmus between the northern and
southern continents. The Rocky Mountains rise
from the great plateau, as do the Wasatch Chain
and the Sierra Nevada, and these Parks of Colorado
are but portions of the upland, closely enveloped
by the mountains. The Cordillera, bending in suc-
cessive and alternate sweeps, divide them from each
other, and spurs curve around to embrace those
fronts of the Parks whence the rivers debouch by
oanyons. The mother Cordillera has a base and
flanks' of granite slopes, surmounted by masses of
jurassic limestone. Neither igneous plutonic rock
nor eruptive lava is there to be found, while the Sierra
Miembres presents the throats of ancient volcanoes
—streams of lava once fluid, and immense pedrigles
of igneous and plutonic rocks. Passing through
Poncho Pass the valley of the Arkansas river is
entered, and the ranges to the east separate it from
the South Park, which extends about GO miles in
length and half that in breadth. The South Platte
passes through the centre of the Park, deriving its
source from the mountains hedging in the valley.
Looking over the Park from the north are two
huge peaks, called Gilpin's Pillars, whence descends
the water south into the South Platte, and north
and west into tributaries of the Colorado. Indeed,
the Middle Park, which lies just tattle north of South
Park and directly south of North Park, gathers
all its waters for the Pacific; while the North Park,
divided from the Middle Park by a narrow chain like
a wall, takes all its scattered streams out by one
mouth, sending them straight north through a con-
tracted gorge gathered into a river of considerable
magnitude. In these densely-massed ranges we
have the backbone of the North American mountain
system, and the great water-shed of its rivers. The
Green River enters Colorado from Utah, penetrat-
ing for a short distance through its mountains, but
though it receives the greater portion of its water
from that Territory, its course is along Utah. In-
deed nearly all its water is derived from these ranges,
and the river, of which it is a branch, has its source
on the opposite side o: that mountain, whence flows
towards the other coast of America the Arkansas,
while one of the main streams of the river run-
ning to the Pacific almost intermingles with the
RioGrande, whose course is to the Gulf of Mexico.
Although the chief Parks of Colorado run in
a line nearly north and south, skirting the rol-
ling prairies, by which the Rocky Mountains are
approached from the east, there are other Parks
scattered over the mountain portion of the Terri-
tory--the Park of the Animas, luuncompahgre
Park, Egeria Park, and others, some only now being
discovered and named. Two expeditions have lately
been despatched ; the one, Colonel Powell's, to
trace down Green River into the Colorado, and the
other from Breckenridge, consisting of Mr. Samuel
Adams with a party of eleven men and four boats.
Our readers should know that this point of departure
is just below Gilpin's Pillars, between the South
and Middle Parks ; that is, it is in the range fur-
thest east, which acts as a watershed to the Pacific,
tile source of the Blue River, which itself is but a
branch of a branch of the Bunkara or Grand River.
If the party get safely through they will find them-
selves on the Colorado with Powell's expedition ;
but the question is, whether they will get safely
through, as the river fell 2,000 feet in 40 miles, the
fall in one mile and a half, being 230 feet, when
they entered a magnificent park, which suddenly
burst on their view as they were whirled along
in the rapids. This, however, can only be the be-
ginning of the descent, for the stream carries them
west, although their starting point as the crow flies
was perhaps within 40 miles of Denver. The wes-
tern half of Colorado to be understood should be
approached from the east. Denver is reached through
long sweeps of rolling prairies, ascending gradually
from the Missouri, but as the city is neared the
snow-clad mountains of Colorado are seen north
and south rising in a grand wall for 200 miles. To
the north Long's Peak stands prominently out ; to
the south Pike's Peak ; and between runs an am-
phitheatre of mountains, the diameter of which is
150 miles. Elsewhere the snowy range is so gradu-
ally approached along the rising ground that
the magnitude of the height is lost, but in Colorado
the scene is like the approach to the Himalayahs
from the plains of India or to the Andes through
Peru. Behind the gazer the prairie is interminable ;
behind the chain rising so majestically before him the
mountain ranges away back to the Pacific are only
broken by wide valleys and broad basins. A writer
thus describes the view from the summit of Mount
Lincoln, overshadowing the picturesque little vil-
lage of Montgomery. " Colorado is spread at your
feet, the South Park, 60 miles long and 30 miles
wide, with its undulating hills, green meadows, and
a thousand glittering lakes and brooks dwindles to
a mere pleasure ground. You look over Long's
Peak north almost into Dacotah ; you look over the
plains of Utah into the west, stretching towards the
golden shores of the Pacific ; you look over the
Spanish Park south into New Mexico, then turning
to the east the eye again wanders over Pike's Peak
to the great plains, which seem to rise up like an
emerald ocean." Although Colonel Powell's expe-
dition is carried but a short distance by the Green
River through Colorado, it derives its name from
that Territory. His narrative so far is a most in-
teresting description of the corner through which
he was taken by the river.

" On the night of the 12th June we camped in a beau-
tiful grove of box elders on tho left bank, and hero we
remained two days to dry our rations, which were in a
spoiling condition. Wo found the wreck of a boat near
our own, that had been carried above high-water mark,
and with it the lid of a bake-oven, an old tin plate, and
other things, showing that some one else had been
wrecked there and camped in the canon after the disaster.
This, I think, confirms the story of an attempt to run the
canon, some years ago, mentioned before. On the 14th
Howland and I climbed the walls of the canon, on the
west side, to the altitude of 2,000 feet. On looking over to
the west wo saw a park five or six miles wide and 25 or 30
long. The cliff formed a wall between the canon and the
park, for it was 800 feet down the west side to the valley.
A creek came winding down the park 1,00 feet above the
river, and, cutting the wall by a canon, it at last plunged
1,000 feet, by a broken cascade, into the river below. The
day after, while wo made another portage, a peak on the
east side was climbed by two of the men and found to be
-,700 feet high. On each side of the river, at this point,
a vast amphitheatre, has been cut out, with deep, dark
alcoves and massive buttresses, and in these alcoves grow
beautiful mosses and ferns. Another day was spent on
the waves among the rocks, and we came down to Alcove
Creek, and made an early halt for the night. The camp
was made by a group of cedars on one side, and a mass of
dead willows on Vie other. . . . . . .
This had been a chapter of disasters and toils, but the
Canon of Ladote was not devoid of scenic interest. It was
grand beyond the power of pen to tell. lts waters roared
unceasingly from the hour we entered it until we landed
hero. No quiet in all that time; but its walls and cliffs,
itB peaks and crags, the amphitheatres anti alcoves told a