The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-06-03
Colorado Letter-VI.
HoLT's RANCH, COLORADO, !
May 27 1873. J

there are no high trees or shrubs to break the
continuous smoothness of the landscape The
soil is fine alluvium mixed with quartz
gravel and small fragments of many kinds of
rock. Wide fields Of prairie have reddish
tint which here and on the mountain sides have
given the land its name, Colorado. The curly
buffalo grass is everywhere and half covers the
earth with thin and broken sod. 1t grows in
punches three or four inches high and from q
tuft OF 1t rises a stem slender as a needle and
surmounted by q razor-blade head. By irriga-
ton it changes into or gives place to heavy
growth OF bluegrass equal to the best product
of the Kentucky region. There Is other herb.
age, bunch-grass, delicate to behold but dry
and unpalatable to the beasts of the plain,
patches of brittle sand-grass, and in the moist
places varieties of lowland grass. Prickly
cactus creeps over the ground, and there is
much soap-weed, the most striking in appear
ance of all the prairie plants; from its roots
grow upward and outward green spikes hard
at the end and keen as singing nettles Here
and there ara spots of ground whitened with
alkali and deeply trodden by the feet of animals
that come thither to eat it in lieu of salt. And
everywhere on the Plains are bones scattered
disiointed as the wolves left them after the BAN
quet anu seeming never TO decay. Especially
noticeable are the buff Alo skulls with black
horns curving from the white bone the traces
! of race of animals that have passed forever
from these plains which Were once their chosen
resort Piles of bones built up mark the di-
vergence OF trails or stand on elevations as a
landmark for sheep-herders.
The air of the Colorado plains is full O
illusion and enchantment. There Is no horizon
line, and the most distant land seems always
to float in the sky like loose islands and penin-
sulas in an ethereal lake. A wash-out in far
| away bank may take any shape, from sheep
camp to . medieval castle, and at sundown
the mirage transforms the prairie weeds into
groves and gardens Of Wonderland Sometimes
in the winter twilight blood-red moon vast
and globular hangs over this desert land so low
asto be threatening, and again one may look
| into sky so transparent and family blue that
it is realization of infinite distance. The
colors and combinations of clouds are unlike
those of anywhere else. There are no red
sunset tints comparable with those of the
East, but behind the black, wind-driven
clouds of a gathering squall are seen peah and
sea green skies of exquisite freshness and lus-
tire. Here also are the rarest shades of that
|
the perfection of color
| In this arid land the streams are few and far
between and they have common characteristics.
The wide, deep watercourses in which they
| flow are dry for half their length. Water
oozss from the sand, runs for miles in a spark
ling rivulet and sinks beneath the ground to re-
appear farther on. In the dry channel there
is sometimes deep pool with no visible inlet
or outlet Little clumps of cottonwood and
willow trees grow at intervals along the banks,
and in marshy places are patches Of Tule
| (rushes) high enough to hide a man. Toward
| Southern Colorado the water becomes highly
alkaline. In places the narrow bottom lands
widen into meadows on which grow low
land grasses. High hills Iise on both
sides and through these deep andI steep
gulches waterworn the bottom lead down
to the creek. The facilities for draining this
country seem in ordinary times greatly in ex-
cess of what would be necessary, but q rain
storm of q few minutes may cause roaring
brooks to flow down the ghlches, and fill the
capacious channel OF creek with tearing
food that sweeps all before it. Men who have
camped in the dry bed of a stream have had
sharp work to save their property when the
| in saving themselves.
| The festal time of year is the coming of green
| grass in the spring. As early as the middle of
last February one could detect here and there
| yellowish green tnge at the roots of the dry
prairie grass, but it was another month before
the new grass was fairly growing. When 1t
became an established fact, the sheep on the
range refused thereafter to eat anything else
and did nothing all day long but run about
hunting it. At this time began q season of
tribulation for the sheep herders, and strain
on their wind aud legs thas made the trials of
the rest of the year seem tame and common
place by comparison. Not only the sheep but
every living thing feels the movement of the
opening spring. A multitude of birds fly up
from the South and fill the air with their sing
| ing Antelope appear in abundance on the
plains, and cattle work their way northward
along the creek bottoms.
The "cow boys" who have passed the winter
/ off the plains ara returning to work or ride
over the country looking for employment. At
| Hollis Ranch most of the old hands have come
back, and the horses have bsen gathered for
the coming Ground up and are now in pro-
cess of training for the work before them
x
through the day, and at night aud morning are
fed with corn. Each rider selects his horses
and makes sure of their performance by mount
ing them to sea how they behave. This year
there are no horses that have not previously
been broken, so there is not. much chance for
display of broncho riding. Some of the horses
buck little at the first mounting, but soon get
over it. On the 26th of April the wagon starts
south for the roundup, and behind it ride the
cowboys, driving before them their spare
horses After this for time, cattle outfits
pass the ranch daily coming from the Sandy
River country. Each caravan, whatever its
size, is a repetition of the one that went from
Holt's Ranch and consists Of a white-covered
cook-wagon and band of horses driven by
mounted men.
In the month of April and the first days of
May great deal of work has been bestowed
on the grounds about the ranch, which have
been thoroughly raked over and the debris of
the winter collected and burned. The garden
has been planted with great variety of seeds.
A substantial and tasteful fence has been built
enclosing the dwelling houses and several acres
of green lawn in front of them. Six hundred
cottonwood trees have been planted about the
home ranch, and the irrigating ditch which
crosses the grounds turned into winding
channel with banks of green turf. The site of
an immense sheep-shed has been marked out
and levelled, and two miles down the creek a
camp and corral fitted up in readiness for lamb
ing time which this year begins on the 10th of
May.
Just now in the midst of this event of the
year most important to the sheep-raiser-his
harvest time, so to speak-the prairie presents
its most smiling aspect. The grass is now
high enough to tint the landscape. On the
hillsides and high land everywhere the brown
earth and the withered last years grass subdue
the freshness of the green, but the bottom
lands on which the grass grows high show
masses of rich dark verdure set off by patches
of barren sand. But the prettiest thing is
the sudden blossoming into flowers of the
whole prairie; they are of every color and COM