MUSEUM. 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. I. 



ALBION, N. Y., MARCH 15, 1895. 



No. 5 



Among the Rockies- 



M. J. ELROD. 



[Illinois Wesleyan University.] 

 The many enthusiastic readers of 

 the Museum who have not had the 

 privilege of scampering among the 

 mountains of the far west, can form 

 but little idea of the vast scope of 

 country unsettled, and in many places 

 unexplored, of the wondrously roman- 

 tic and beautiful scenery, with c'iffs, 

 crags, ravines, and plateaus, and above 

 all, of the wide field for study and ex- 

 ploration in the various lines of natu- 

 ral history. 



During the past summer the writer 

 escorted a party of students on a tour 

 for pleasure and profit. Altogether 

 we were an even dozen. A week 

 was spent at Pike's Peak, after which 

 we went direct to Pocatello, Idaho, 

 took teams from there and drove north 

 along the Snake river, a distance of 

 200 miles, went into and around the 

 National Park, a journey of 200 miles, 

 and returned to Pocatello, making 

 altogether 600 miles or more of travel 

 by teams. 



On a former occasion, in 1892, I 

 spent two weeks camping and collect- 

 ing at Seven Lakes, a few miles from 

 the summit of Pike's Peak, at an alti- 

 tude of I 1.500 feet, and the following 

 summer spent two weeks camped at 

 Mt. Lou Lou, Montana, collecting and 

 mountaineering. The Editor has kind- 

 ly invited me to give the results of 

 some of these collectings, and it is a 



great pleasure to again live in my study 

 the days I spent in the field, filled with 

 hardships, though some of them were. 

 In addition to collecting material, I, this 

 summer had a full photographic outfit 

 with a Zeiss-anastigmat wide angled 

 lens, 5x8, a diaphragm shutter, and 

 two gross of plates, with nine double 

 holders. I brought home some seventy- 

 five good negatives, and some of these 

 will be used in the illustrations which 

 accompany these articles. 



Manitou is one of the loveliest spots 

 on the face of the earth. It is a small 

 town, but larger than it appears, be- 

 ing scattered along the canons, ravines 

 and gorges of that famous sentinel of 

 the plains. Pike's Peak. Nestling 

 among the foothills of the mountain, it 

 bathes in an atmosphere of almost 

 perpetual sunshine, the storm clouds 

 on the peak occasionally lending a 

 solemn grandeur to the scene, which, 

 once seen, can never be forgotten. 

 Down the streets rush the torrents in 

 their mad haste to reach the level 

 plains, with a surging and tumbling of 

 waters delightfully pleasing to those 

 used to the still-running brooks and 

 muddy flats characteristic of the region 

 of the "Father of Waters." Far up 

 in the mountain some of these waters 

 are turned into pipes for the town, 

 giving a supply absolutely pure, and a 

 pressure sufficient to almost blow out 

 a fire. The climate is almost perfect, 

 the scenery sublime, the attractions 

 for artists, naturalists, or sight-seers 



