Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1863-12-02
From Denver to Colorado City.
RoNDERTUI NATURAL FORMATIONS.


Gshed at DshYsr, gives the following in
terestihg aceotnt of the natural forma-
tions in the land Of gold: "a
/ Descending into a subordinate depres-
sion of the divide to give our horses their
noon feed, we came to a most singular
tract of petri6oation. Richardson, the
owner of the place, (with true new couR-
try aptness of nomenclature called "Pfet-
ty Wonens Ranch" in compliment to
the charms of the fair rancheress, show
ed us whole trunks Of pine and cotton
wood which had been turned into jasper
and agate as they stood, beautifully pre-
serving every line of their woody tissue
through the inaltration Of silica from the
earth in which they we're rooted. Nota
mile from the house is a broad Fbench"
or terrace, where the stumps Of a whole
forest stand bewitched into stone that
might furnish all the sons of men with
handsome watch seals. Some specimens
of silica in its various phases which I saw
here, were unsurpassed in color and lus-
ter by anything I have found heretofore
in jewel-shops or cabinets.
Any one who has seen the singular
trick which rain water and wind have
played with the banks of the Upper Mis-
sissippi or the YglloHatunsi will easily
credit the bewildgrihg accuracy Of the
architectural limitations thus described
a LANDSCAPE.
The laboTs of the human architect were
stimulated everywhere. In some por-
tions Of the ROekey Mountains where I
have travelled, such resemblances, loom
ing upon me suddenly III the depths of
Etrackless, silent wilderness, have been
absolutely appalling. I have seemed to
be standing alone in the splendid palaces
lcf the genii. Here, however, the like
ness to conscious architecture was every
where grotesque or beautiful Growing
low butte upon our west rose a splen-
did consteIlated pile, which, with all my
preparation for strange freaks Of nature,
/ I required some. reasoning with myself to
i.sssure me was not the handiwork of man.
There stood Windsor Castle, elaborated
to the last detail Of turrets, PORTALS; deep
embrasured windows, battlemeuts and
bastionsi If I had not sketohed it I
might say to the engraver who illustrates
my travels, Make me a rough-lined
copy of Windsor from any convenient
picture of the facade, and he would
have represented that rock for the in
slant recognition of any backwoodsman's
boy.
Such picture as the following can
probably be Witnessed nowhere else on
earth
A NATURAL CEMETERY.
A few miles further on we struck
Monument Creek, where Fremont cam
! ped for a considerable time during q
think his second expedition. The name
instantly began explaining itself. At
every turn Of the road some new surprise
broke upon US. Here Greenwood or Lau-
rel Hill cleaned through the trees-all
the outcroWping ridges Of yellow con
glomerate having been late-worked by
the wind into Egyptian vaults, pyramid
shafts, Turkish sarcophagi, pillar-propped
tablets, obelisks and monuments of every
size and style. A AfavOrite form with the
wind sculptor vas shallow urn erected
on Auted column, this shape being ap-
parently explained on close inspection by
the greater tenaeity of the surface of the
conglomerate through an excess of iron
oxides in its composition, this portion
/ yielding more slowly to attrition, while
the more friable lime and sand in the
lower portion Of the block were rapidly
cut away into robndness. We found it
as difficult, at first sight to conceive Of
Nature as the sculptor of this cemetery
as we had to acknowledge her architect
Of the castle.
GARDEN OF TIE GODS.
As we whirled down the splendad floor
of the valley (fOr; like all the roads in
Colorado, it is father floor than high
way,) we werB closely walled upon the
right and left by sHccgssivg tablets Of red
and creamy rock, thin strata of gorge
ously colored sehistj which the molten
outburst of the granite sierra had raised
from their original planes to an absolute
perpendicular. We have nothing like
these in the East Metaphor alone de-
scribes them. They are not sandstone.
I They are a strange porcelain from the
pottery Of the gnomes-a composite rock,
part clay, part lime, part fiht-sand, the
white a paste Of gilt mixed with calcare-
Gus powder, fine as gypsum dust, and in
deed running into beautiful gypsum bedl
close by; the red still further complica-
ted by mixtures Of Oxiaes and smoothly
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