46 PROCEEDINGS Or THE ACADEMY OF 



ON PREHISTORIC HUMAN ART FROM WYOMING AND COLORADO. 



BY E. L. BERTHOUD, A.M., C.E. 



[Journal of a Reconnoissance made along Creek Valley, Colorado, in October and 



November, 1871.] 



Greeley, Colorado. 



Oct. 21, mi. We leave Greeley, lat. 40 25', long. 104 36' 

 west, at 2^ P.M., cross Cache La Poudre Railroad, half mile east 

 of town, our course is N. 60 east. Camping in the evening below 

 the mouth of the Cache La Poudre, and on north bank of South 

 Platte River, our reconnoissance line takes us to Low Wet Creek, 

 three miles north of the river, but the total want of water in the 

 creek compels us to go to Platte River for camp. 



Altitude above the sea 45.56. Vegetation is getting more 

 stunted; the only trees and shrubs found are Populus angulata, 

 Salix muhlenbergiana? Rhus triloba, and Negundo aceroides; 

 Cerasus serotina : while a few Cleome integrifolia, and Aster 

 Novse-Anglise? are }^et in flower, and Cactus 'opuntia, covers the 

 high prairie everywhere. 



Platte River abounds in wild geese, A. canadensis ; brant, A. 

 Bernicla ; some white gulls and sooty terns. 



Oct. 22. Leave camp at 7 A.M., course N. 36 east. Travel- 

 ling to-day to reach Crow Creek for evening camp ; soil is sandy 

 and covered in every direction with prickly pear of most annojang 

 thickness ; our view in every direction except west is bounded by 

 a dreary, grayish, monotonous prairie, still it is singular to see 

 what a large amount of animal life exists here. 



Three kinds of wolves, the little prairie fox Canis velox, ante- 

 lopes, badgers, prairie dogs, two kinds of rabbits, black-tailed 

 deer were seen by us to-day at 3 P.M., in full sight of Crow Creek; 

 we find in several prairie ridges multitudes of Ostrsea or Inocera- 

 mus shells, forming beds of dark, soft earthy limestone. Reach- 

 ing Crow Creek we camp in a bend of the stream. 



Oct. 23. We follow Crow Creek to-day for nine or ten miles in 

 a course on average about N. 40 east. Water and grass scarce 

 and bad. We cross and recross the creek to-day, but it is dry 

 and sandy, and its banks wofully parched; at 3 P.M. finding a 



[June 25, 



