1881.] 



NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHTLADELPHTA. 



19 



space of about two miles in length by one in -width, the surface of 

 which is broken into ridges crossing each other at various angles, 

 and crowned or bordered at the top by the red sandstone and 

 conglomerate rocks, whose peculiar shapes and likenesses to 

 heathen deities have probablj- suggested the name given to this 

 bit of landscape. A rude idea of the topography may be had by 

 drawing a horse-shoe, the toe toward the north ; within the mouth 

 of this let a second horse-shoe be described, occupying about one- 

 half the space in width and one-third in length. Unite the toes of 



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Fis. 1.— Sketch-map of the Garden of the gods. 



the two shoes by a zig-zag line, and draw lines east and west, on 

 either side from the interior figure. The western line of the out- 

 side shoe will represent the Manitou ridge, which starts at the 

 base of Pike's Peak. The eastern line will indicate the cretaceous 

 wall of the table-land known as the Mesa, and the two walls of 

 the Red Canyon. The inner shoe has for its western line the Von 

 Hagen ridge, for its eastern the Adams ridge ; the east and west 

 lines will represent the general course of the- ridges which drop 

 down from these two, from the broken central ridge, Prospect 

 ridge, represented hy the zig-zag line, and from the eastern face 

 of Manitou ridge. These ridges are composed of red sandstone, 

 which crops out freely, forming vast ledges and cliffs. The top 

 soil, where the rock is not exposed, is a heavy gravel, upon which 

 grow tufts of gramma grass, straggling bunches of grease wood, 



