1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



983 



THROUGH THE ROCKIES OF COLORADO; THE 

 GKAND CANYON OF THE GUNNISON; MAR- 

 SHALL pass; a DRIVE WITH W. L. PORTER, 

 OF DENVER; THE UNIQUE HOUSE-APIARY 

 OF THE RAUCHFUSS BROTHERS, NEAR DEN- 

 VER. 



Leaving Delta we continue on our jour- 

 ney, taking' the narrow-gaug'e road throutn^h 

 some of the most magnificent scenerj' in the 

 United States — scenery, I am told, that 

 would compare very favorably with any 

 found in Switzerland. I had often pictur- 

 ed in my mind's eye how immense, how 

 wonderful those grand canyons and those 

 towering peaks would look; but no pen or 

 camera can ever portray the 

 magnificent grandeur of the 

 things themselves. The peaks 

 were higher and the canj-ons 

 were more wonderfully grand 

 than any thing that I had ever 

 conceived of in my wildest day- 

 dreams. The palisades of solid 

 red granite in the passes as they 

 towered above the railroad-track 

 really seemed to kiss the very 

 heavens. And such rainbow tint- 

 ing I I had seen in the railroad 

 offices some of the beautiful col- 

 ored pictures of the passes in the 

 Ciin3^ons, and I had always sup- 

 posed they were overdone of 

 course. But, greatly to my sur- 

 prise, nature has endowed the 

 reality itself with all the color- 

 ings that we find in pictures, 

 but more beautifully tinted than 

 can ever be shown with the 

 brush. 



As our train, so tiny in compar- 

 ison, crept along slowly at the 

 very foot of the rocks that tow- 

 ered up perpendicularly thou- 

 sands of feet — rocks that seemed 

 as if they would fall the next 

 minute on the puny works of 

 man, we could see those colors 

 change tint from the reflections 

 of the sunlight that made one 

 think he was having a glimpse of 

 what heaven is like, for such 

 beauty does not seem to be of 

 earth. 



While we were climbing up 

 and up we could notice changes 

 in vegetation according to the al- 

 titude. At an elevation of only 

 7000 feet at Sapinero, Col., I saw 

 any quantity of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain bee-plant that looked so 



very much like the spider-plant that I 

 was inclined to think it such at first. But 

 no bees were there to gather its sweet- 

 ness. On and on we kept climbing, often 

 viewing the serpentine track below us that 

 we had left but a few minutes before. Well 

 do I remember the sensation as we went 

 through Marshall Pass, between 10,000 and 

 11,000 feet high. I stepped out at the sta- 

 tion, but there was a great difficulty of 

 breathing, a dizziness in the head, and 

 withal a general faintness. I staggered 

 back into the car, quite content to keep quiet 

 until we should get down from that height. 

 On one occasion my pulse, ordinarily beat- 

 ing at 68, ran up to 130; but at this time it 

 reached something over 100. Again the 

 train started, and this time it was evident 

 we were going down, down; and before 

 night I was breathing much easier. 



If space would permit I should like to 

 tell you something about the Garden of the 

 Gods, at Manitou; of the trip up Pike's 

 Peak; how I essayed to go up on a donkey; 

 of how the donkey snailed along until, in 

 desperation, I got off the beast and declared 



ALFALFA BLOSSOMS, LIFE SIZE. 



