xxxii] CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 179 



uninteresting, and we reached Colorado Springs (six thousand 

 feet above the sea) at half-past ten at night, having travelled 

 about six hundred miles, through the most varied, grand, 

 and interesting portion of the Rocky Mountain system. The 

 next morning, after breakfast, I went on by the branch 

 railway to 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 crystal, and tastes just like good aerated water. The 

 springs are surrounded 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 Monardafistulosa, 

 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 un- 

 dulating or hummocky land backed by a range of cliffs, and 

 presenting scores and even hundreds of isolated rock masses 

 of varying heights, but generally 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 varying 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 another a Scotchman 

 with plaid and glengarry cap, and one is named the Lady of 

 the Garden. There is a cobbler, a bear, a buffalo, a Punch 

 and Judy, and the Squatter ; — the last is here reproduced 

 from a photograph. 



