IOWA TO PUGET SOUXD. 53 



siicli evergTeeiis as Piniis murrayana, Abies siihalpnui and other 

 evergreeii sliriibs and trees growing along tlie borders of buttes 

 and mesas, while Popidus fronidoides is doubtless the tree found 

 most commonly on the flood plains along the streams. These 

 and other trees, together with the cacti, Yiirca (iiKjiistifolia. and 

 other plants very similar to those found at Pueblo are in con- 

 stant view as the train speeds on its continnons wind, with 

 the engine in sight first on one side and then on the dthor in 

 passing around and over mesas inunmerable along the river 

 valley, where irrigated, land is very productive and held at high 

 price. One is especially interested also in the irrigation canals, 

 gates and smaller ditches so arranged tliat every part of the 

 irrigated areas may easily be flooded and the whole to support 

 a ]uire formation of some kir.d of cultivated plants, showing 

 very different adaptations than those exliibited liy the native 

 xerophytes. 



Thus one is huri-ied onward and soon reaches tlio Ifoyal 

 Gorge of the Arkansas river, where the passengers who are not 

 familiar with stupendous scenery take the observation car. The 

 gorge is about fifteen miles long, fifty feet wide at the bottom 

 and only seventy at the top in narrow places, and reaches in 

 several places a vertical height of considerably more than a half 

 mile. C-acti, cedars, pines, yuccas and other desert plants are 

 seen on the sides of the canon walls where not too abrupt, and' 

 one longs, if a lover of things so insignificant, for a chance 

 at the lichens that grow from the bottom to the top of the walls, 

 and as well on the projecting crags and balanced rocks that often 

 seem to be almost directly overhead and perhaps a half mile 

 above the track. There is probably no more wonderful piece 

 of scenery than this in the Rocky mountains, and we are quite 

 excusable for diluting the botanical narrative with a brief and 

 necessarily futile attempt at giving; some conception of the 

 remarkable sublimity of the scene. After leaving the gorge, 

 we traveled for the remainder of tlie day through very similar 

 scenery, through other smaller gorges and between distant snow- 

 capped mountains, seeing very similar vegetation until night 



