1878.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



375 



have come to spend a fortnight or more in a 

 quiet way, apart from the tumult of a busy world ; 

 some of these in true traveling style partake 

 of the morning meal, while others are not yet 

 astir, but have left the faithful watch dog as 

 guardian of the realm whilst they sleep ; we 

 disturb them not, nor envy their repast, for at 

 present ours are higer aims, and we even cast no 

 longing, lingering look behind, so intent are we 

 upon the beauties before. Close by the rapid 

 stream our pathway leads; the Poplars and the 

 Willows arching overhead, make a romantic 

 ride. My mind is fully alive to these surround- 

 ings, and though I may fail to make intelligible 

 the record with my pen, to those for whom I 

 write, there is not a doubt but that from the first 

 hands I have received a full, a realizing sense of 

 all there is to see. Two miles on our way we 

 halt at the toll house, fori have learned that 'tis 

 not alone on broad, smooth highways through 

 the country that a tax is laid. The assessment 

 is one dollar and fifty cents for each horse, and 

 its collection is about sutticient to keep the trail 

 in repair ; each pays the duty, and forward we 

 move again. Now the ascent is fairly begun, 

 and a winding circuitous up hill way it is ; we 

 have taken the left hand side of the mountain 

 stream, and it seems to have been selected as 

 being best suited for the purpose. The name 

 given to this stream is the Fountaine-qui-Bouille, 

 and 'tis well named ; we hear the boiling, rumb- 

 ling sound as its waters dash against the rocks, 

 we see now and then, amongst the trees far in 

 the depths below, its foam and splash, as a 

 plunge is made into cavernous recesses, or as it 

 reappears from beneath an arching rock; the 

 volume of water is considerable, and when the 

 discoverer of Engleman's Canon announced to 

 the world that he had seen therein a tempestu- 

 ous, roaring mountain stream, a Avild and foam- 

 ing cataract, a torrent dashing headlong down 

 among the boulders and the rocks, he only did what 

 I have here essayed, tried to give a faint con- 

 ception of the truth. Flowers in great profusion 

 bloom close to the water's edge, and some find 

 their way far up among the rocks. The Maple 

 and the Willow, the Poplar and the Birch are 

 growing side by side, but chief among the host, 

 and altogether lovely, is the towering Pine ; such 

 specimens as I have nowhere else beheld, with 

 Firs and Spruce of equal beauty. The botanists 

 who have visited these mountains years ago, 

 have distributed among the nurserymen in the 

 Ea.st, seeds of most of the species that occur 



here, and these have introduced them into the 

 parks and lawns about our cities and among the 

 residences of well to do country folk, so that 

 they are not entirely unknown ; but the stateli- 

 ness of figure, symmetry of form, and harmo- 

 nious surroundings, fail not to impress the lover 

 of the beautiful, that in their homes and not irt 

 ours, is to be seen their full glory and beauty. 

 These are the Rocky Mountains, — and if it is be- 

 cause of granite boulders everywhere abounding, 

 rocks so large that one cannot form a concep- 

 tion of their size or weight, then the name is 

 appropriate ; so close upon our path they come 

 that many have been blasted or broken to make 

 the way, and where a mis-step or a slipping 

 stone could not bring anything short of instant 

 death, by dashing over precipices hundreds of 

 feet. Several times we cross the seething flood, tlie 

 slender bridge of logs bending and quivering un- 

 der the horses' weight ; we pass to the right, 

 then to the left, and make such sharp tvn-ns, that 

 the way before us is oftimes not visible ten 

 yards in advance ; so we rise the mountain side 

 some thousands of feet, reaching at last a 

 charming spot known as Sheltered Falls, where 

 we rest our horses, and regale om'selves with 

 draughts from the crystal flood that comes from 

 underneath the sheltered rock; this with the 

 Naiad's Grotto, just above, is enough to pay for 

 all om- toil, if we should find nothing more at- 

 tractive beyond ; but even these fairy scenes we 

 cannot always know, and so we turn our backs 

 on this, only to have opened a grander, a more 

 extended sight, for here the valley opens in full 

 view, the length of miles we have already come ; 

 the sloping mountain side, with its coverings of 

 green, the sentinel rocks on Cameron's cone, 

 the rushing flood pausing not, but winding when 

 it reaches the valley, and there like whitened 

 specks the houses of Manitou appear in the sun- 

 light. Not long the time allowed to take in a 

 scene like this ; again we cross the boiling- 

 flood, and along a stretch of open mountain side 

 with only here and there a pine, and these not 

 the same species as we saw farther down the 

 Canon, for every certain distance more or less, 

 according to the shelter or the slope, the species 

 change as higher altitudes are reached. Cross- 

 ing again the stream, which b}' tliis time is 

 much reduced in size, we enter a level meadow 

 hundreds of acres in extent ; here is a remark- 

 able growth of Aspen, in some places so close 

 together as scarcely to admit the passage of a 

 person among them : the giound is well covered 



