CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 179 



Manitou Springs (6360 feet), the "Soda Springs" of the old- 

 time trappers mentioned in some of Mayne Reid's inimitable 

 stories. Here, where the mountains rise abruptly from the 

 great plains, which are themselves more than six thousand 

 feet above the sea, are a group of springs situated near 

 together on a small plateau, yet each of different character 

 and composition. The most interesting is the " boiling spring ' 

 or "soda spring," which is so full of gas that it looks as if 

 boiling, but is really effervescing. It is as clear as a crystal, 

 and tastes just like good aerated water. The springs are sur- 

 rounded by several pretty hotels, and a small number of shops, 

 boarding houses, and private residences. I spent the morning 

 walking up some of the curious little valleys that open at 

 once into the mountains, and found a few interesting plants, 

 among which was the Monarda fistnlosa, of a very bright lilac 

 pink colour, some campanulas, and a few others. After dinner, 

 it being too hot to walk, I hired a buggy to drive me round the 

 Garden of the Gods and Glen Eyrie, a distance of about seven 

 miles. This consists of a tract of undulating or hummocky 

 land backed by a range of cliffs, and presenting scores and even 

 hundreds of isolated rock masses of varying heights, but gener- 

 ally about ten or twenty feet, and worn by wind-action into the 

 strangest forms, which have received distinctive names. They 

 are composed of sandstone in nearly horizontal strata of vary- 

 ing hardness, whence has resulted their curious shapes. Some 

 are like pillars with overhanging tops, but most of them, when 

 seen from the right point of view, are ludicrous representations 

 of men or animals. In one we see an old Irish peasant, in an- 

 other a Scotchman with plaid and glengarry cap, and one is 

 named the Lady of the Garden. There is a cobbler, a bear, a 

 buffalo, the squatter, and a Punch and Judy, the two latter are 

 here reproduced from photographs. 



But even more remarkable than these are the wonderful 

 group of isolated rocks, forming what is called the gateway to 

 the garden. Here are two enormous walls or slabs of red 

 sandstone rising abruptly out of the smooth grassy surface to 

 a height of three hundred and fifty feet, and leaving about 

 the same distance between them, in the centre of which is a 



