332 BUFFALO LAND. 



When within a day's journey of the mountains, we 

 came in sight of several tall objects standing out in 

 bold relief upon the plain. These proved to be giant 

 pines, thrown out, like sentinels, from the forests still 

 far beyond and invisible. We could not resist the 

 impulse to give the first one we came to a hearty hug ; 

 for, after so many weeks upon the treeless plain, these 

 suggestions of mighty forests, with their mingled 

 sheen and shadow, were indeed welcome. The mount- 

 ains of Colorado, with their beautiful parks and won- 

 derful young cities, have been so often described that 

 our notes would prove a useless addition to a some- 

 what worn history, and hence we forbear taxing the 

 reader's patience by transcribing them here. 



After studying the principles of mining and irriga- 

 tion, we spent in the neighborhood of one calendar 

 month in getting views of sunrise and sunset, from 

 all the known peaks, to the end that no future tourist 

 might feel called upon to extend to us his kind com- 

 miseration for having lost some particular outlook, 

 where he had been, and which he considered the 

 best of all. To accomplish this thoroughly, we hewed 

 j^aths up hitherto inaccessible mountains, and at the 

 end of the month made a close calculation, and de- 

 cided that we were a match for all such tourists for 

 at least five years to come. We then retraced our 

 steps to Buffalo Land, again entering the fossil belt 

 near Fort Wallace. 



One incident of our trip into Colorado deserves 

 especial mention from having been the first, as it will 

 probably prove the last, attempt to photograph the 

 buffalo in his native wildness, at close quarters. The 



