of 



and leafless aspens and the tall and richly robed 

 firs. 



I was impelled to try to make this mountain 

 realm a National Forest and felt that sometime 

 it would become a National Park. The wonder- 

 ful reports of prospectors about the scenery of this 

 region, together with what I knew of it from in- 

 complete exploration, eloquently urged this 

 course upon me. My plan was to make a series 

 of photographs, from commanding heights and 

 slopes, that would illustrate the forest wealth 

 and the scenic grandeur of this wonderland. In 

 the centre Uncompahgre Peak rose high, and 

 by girdling it a little above the timber I obtained 

 a number of the desired photographs, and then 

 hurried from height to height, taking other pict- 

 ures of towering summits or their slopes below 

 that were black and purpling with impressive, 

 pathless forests. 



The second evening I went into camp among 

 some picturesque trees upon a skyline at an 

 altitude of eleven thousand feet above the tides. 

 While gathering wood for a fire, I paused to 

 watch the moon, a great globe of luminous gold, 



224 



