The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-25

and Harvard are seen to the south
west. Far to the southwark the eye
could get glimpse of the red summit
of Mount Ouray, 81 miles distant Mounts
Resale and Evans are our neighbors-
Then far to the southeast could be seen
the lonely summit of Pixies Peak. Be
low to the west lies Middle Park. out
of which flows the Blue to join the
Grand, the Green, the Colorado, and I'M
ally the Gulf of California. To the south
we behold South Park, out of which
flows the Platte to Join the Missouri, the
Mississippi, and empty at last into the
Gulf of Mexico.
Sitting on this peak. with those objee-
tive lessons in geography passing
through my mind, 1 was profundly iTll-
pressed with the exalted privilege which
l was enjoying.
The bleak crests and snow-filled gulch-
eS were not the only wonders to see,
for there below us were the crystal
lakes and pine fringed mountains of
lesser heights. Coleridge in his hymn on
the Sunrise in the Vale of Glamour"
when on looking up on Mt. Blanc ex-
claimed:
Thou risest up from out thy
Silent sea of Dines.''
But we were looking down on silent
sea of pines" 1t is well known that not
one in a hundred who attempt it is
able to look down from such attitudes
in the Alps Indeed in the Alps the line
of perpetual snow is 1000 feet lower
than the summit of Gray's peak.
This peak was named after Prof. Asa
Gray the botanist. by his friend, Prof.
c. c. Perry in 1852. and in 1872 Prof.
Gray in company with 20 others scaled
the peak, when Rev. Reuben Weiser,
Lutheran clergyman, addressed this au-
dience in this lonely spot rendering Prof.
Gray a welcome to the peak named af-
ter him. This address we read in the
Georgetown Colorado Miner of August
%, 1872, of which DR.. Weiser then was
editor. DR.. Weiser in the same issue
stated that mo living thing was ever
seen on this summit" But we saw ship
hunks, comics. several kinds of birds
and a kind of woolly worm there. In
deed. the Rockies to their very peaks are
full of birds.
The two hours spent on the peak were
all too brief, but the declining sun
warned us to hasten down. Alta o'clock we
began our descent and for the first 1000
feet we pushed our burros before us.
passing the hog-back, the snowbanks,
precipices. gulches, etc, until timber
line was reached. and the meadows of
beautiful wild flowers again greeted our
eyes, which it would seem were born TO
Waste their sweetness on the desert
air"
Upon the peak we found few blooming
lichens with blue. yellow and red flowers
struggling for an existence between
moist rocks. In two hours we had de-
scended from heights which to mount
IeQQlIeu lOuI ditQ ny dhSN w
reached the wagon road. Byron SAYS;
THE tired horse quickens its pace as it
nears it's home" and a Rocky mountain
burro is no exception. BY 8 o'clock, tired
sore hungry, but triumphantly happy
because we got there, I'VE finally reach
ed our hotel. ready as never before for a
sumptuous supper and a soothing sleep.
After a Sunday in Denver. where we
have an engagement to supply vacant
pulpit we will take our course up the
III. a
South Park, over the Boroas and Ere
mont passes to Leadville. thence to Glen
wood Springs, and then back to Color
ado Springs via the picturesque Colora-
do Midland railroad. over the famous
Hagerman Pass 1,50O feet high, max
ing this the highest standard gauge
railway in the world. H. A. OFT
Idaho Springs, Col. August %, 1903.