CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 177 



occasional bare slopes show a covering of earth and boulders, 

 washed from above by the melting of the winter snows. Here 

 we wound in and out among the mountains up to the heads 

 of all the lateral valleys, then returning on the other side so 

 as to see the line we had come by many hundreds of feet 

 below us. Several short snowsheds were passed through before 

 reaching the summit between two branches of the Gunnison 

 river, just short of eight thousand feet above the sea. On 

 the east side we again wound about, in and out of valleys, 

 sometimes round such sharp curves that the train made almost 

 a semi-circle, till in the evening we reached Cimarron, where 

 we stopped the night, as there is a fine gorge of the Upper 

 Gunnison river through which the line passes. 



Starting at 9 a. m. on July 16, we at once entered the 

 gorge, and for fifteen miles had a succession of very fine 

 scenery, the gneissic rocks forming grand precipices, some- 

 times overhanging, or in picturesque forms with towers and 

 pinnacles, at others widening into little basins with fine peeps 

 of mountain summits. Pines and firs clung to the rocks, in- 

 creasing the beauty of the scene. On emerging from the 

 gorge, the valley became wider with moderate slopes and 

 table-topped mountains. We reached Gunnison (7580 feet) 

 at 11:10 a. m v situated in a rather bare open plain, with 

 rounded hills ; then entering an open upland valley with fine- 

 looking meadows full of flowers — a perfect garden speckled 

 with pale and dark yellow, pink, blue, and white flowers — the 

 most flowery valley I have seen during my American tour, 

 and the only one that equalled the finest of the European Alps. 

 I could distinguish great patches of Dodecatheon, masses of 

 lupins, and white and pink Gilias. Then we came to patches 

 of pines and firs, and reached Sargent, 8400 above the sea, 

 and I should think a fine station for a botanist at this time of 

 the year. 



From here we entered a series of high branching valleys, up 

 and round which we wound to ascend to Marshall Pass, the 

 summit level of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, at an 

 elevation of 10,850 feet. Stopping a few minutes on the sum- 

 mit, I saw many fine flowers, among which was a pentstemon 



