BIS APPEARING GAME 181 



erable variety of game animals, it has remained 

 the best stocked region in Colorado. 



Eleven hours by railway carried me from 

 Denver to Steamboat Springs. This is one of 

 the most picturesque and thrilling railway trips 

 in the world. The train leaves Denver, at an 

 altitude of 5,170 feet, and at once begins the 

 ascent of the continental divide. Up and up 

 it climbs, doubling and redoubling upon itself, 

 in and out of innumerable small tunnels, skirt- 

 ing precipitous walls, past nile-green lakes nes- 

 tling in hollows amid fir-clad mountains, always 

 presenting wide views, entrancing beyond the 

 grasp of imagination, until, at the end of eigh- 

 teen miles, timber line has been passed and the 

 summit of the pass is reached, 1 1,660 feet above 

 the sea and surrounded by perpetual snow. 



Then the descent is begun, and in the vast 

 timbered area west of the continental divide 

 the big game country begins, extending west- 

 ward and southward. The scenery is rugged in 

 the extreme. Now and again one glimpses 

 mountain streams, said to be alive with trout, 

 pouring down over rocks to join other streams 

 in their course to the far-away Pacific. This 

 was a favorite hunting ground for the old-time 

 trappers, and more than one profitable and 

 eventful trapping season was spent in this 



