180 MY LIFE 



smaller similar rock. Through this Opening is seen the fine 

 rocky mass of Pike's Peak, snow-clad in Spring and flecked 

 with snow in summer, contrasting with the rich red of the 

 sandstone gateway and the flower-specked sward, so as to 

 produce a landscape which for singularity and beauty I have 

 never seen equalled. In nature, as in the view here repro- 

 duced, the precipices forming the gateway have the appear- 

 ance of rocky hills pierced by a chasm, and it is only when 

 one goes through the gate and looks back, and then walks 

 completely round them, that one sees that they are mere 

 vertical slabs of sandstone, quite comparable with those which 

 form the fantastic groups and pillars already described, but of 

 much greater dimensions. Looked at from another point of 

 view, the upper ridge is seen to be worn into strange shapes 

 with openings and pinnacles, the central mass having excellent 

 representations of a seal and a bear, while on the left is seen 

 the figure of an Indian in his robes. From yet another point 

 the same masses when seen edgeways appear as a wonderful 

 group of lofty rock-pinnacles, which are appropriately named 

 the Cathedral Spires. Glen Eyrie, a little way further north, 

 is a small valley terminating in a narrow gorge full of isolated 

 columnar masses of various forms and overhanging, often 

 mushroom-like tops as shown in the photograph, have quite a 

 distinct character, but have not the varied beauty of the 

 " Garden." 



The next day (Monday, July 18), I went on to Denver, 

 and arranged with Miss Eastwood, whom I had met in May, 

 to go to Graymount, the nearest station to Gray's Peak, for a 

 few days' botanizing. Starting at eight the next morning, we 

 went up very picturesque valleys to the mining settlement of 

 Georgetown (eight thousand five hundred feet), and thence 

 on to Graymount, eight miles further, in which distance we 

 ascended 1170 feet. On the way we had recourse to a loop, 

 the line crossing the valley winding up its side, then crossing 

 back again by a lofty viaduct and thus overcoming the greatest 

 abrupt rise in the valley, making, in fact, an aerial instead of a 

 subterranean corkscrew as they so often do under similar cir- 

 cumstances in the Alps. At Graymount we found a tolerable 



