The bee-keepers, review. 



275 



honey producer who must put his crop up- 

 on the .tjeueral market, I beheve that the 

 best course is to use full sheets of as 

 light foundation as will answer the pur- 

 pose. 



A TRIP- AMONG THE MOUNTAINS 

 OF COLORADO. 



After attending the Denver convention 

 a party of Eastern men and women took 

 a trip of about 75 miles up into the moun- 

 tains to Silver Plume. There is a railroad 

 goes to this place, the cars being open at 

 the sides, like a street car, to allow more 

 perfect observation. Of course the road, 

 which is of the narrow gauge type, follows 

 up the canon, that is, a valley or gorge, 

 between the mountains. There is scarce- 

 ly rod of straight track in the whole 75 

 miles, and sometimes it is so crooked, 

 that in passing around the foot of a moun- 

 tain, one can not, by looking out of the 

 window, see more than half of the next 

 car ahead — the rest of the train is hid by 

 the mountain. At any time, by looking 

 out at one side of the train or the other, 

 the engine may be seen. It is wind in 

 and out, here and there, twist, and turn, 

 and curve, aud puff, and climb up higher. 

 Sometimes it surely seems as though the 

 engine must surely go smash against the 

 the great towering wall of rock that looms 

 up in front, when swis/i, lurch, swerve, 

 and away we glide to one side, only to 

 play the same trick over again. 



The Rocky Mountains were rightly 

 named. Look out of the window; crane 

 your neck; look up, up, up, and it is one 

 solid mountain of rock, scarred, and seam- 

 ed, and fissured. What tremendous forc- 

 es of nature must have been put into op- 

 eration to have upheavetl these masses of 

 rock thousands and thousands of feet into 

 the air. 



And then the wealth of coloring. Some 

 mountains a light gray, some a dark red- 

 dish brown. Others a dark green from 

 their mantle of evergreens that manage to 

 gain a foothold upon the rocky surface. 

 Then there comes a patch of delicate, ten- 

 der green caused by some other kind of 



vegetation. Then a vista opens up be- 

 tween two peaks, and in the distance we 

 .still see other peaks, dimly, through a 

 haze of purple. Perhaps we catch a 

 glimpse of snow clad peaks. 



Right in the midst of all this grandure, 

 a stop is made for water, and the wag of 

 the party thrusts his head out of the win- 

 dow and exclaims: "There is a wash-out 

 on the line, and we can't go any farther." 

 There was an immediate craning of necks, 

 but all we saw was a wash out on a clothes 

 line back of the little station. 



On we go, up, up, up. Finally we 

 reach a point where a wonderful piece of 

 engineering skill enaVjles us to accom- 

 plish what would otherwise have been 

 impossible. It is the famous "loop." 

 Havnng climbed one side of the gorge un- 

 til we reach a point where we can go no 

 higher, we turn out upon a high bridge 

 and cross over to the opposite side of the 

 gorge. Instead of continuing on up the 

 gorge, we turn back toward the way 

 whence we came, at the same time climb- 

 ing higher and higher. Finallv we glide 

 out upon another still higher trestle than 

 the first bridge, and cross back to the 

 other side of the gorge, passing directly 

 over, but many feet above, the track upon 

 which we were but a few minutes before, 

 thus continuing our way on up the side 

 of the mountain. From here on to the 

 end of the route the track is series of loops 

 and curves that allow us, in a sort of zig- 

 zag way, to force our way up the gorge, 

 while above us the rocky peaks tower up 

 in the blue ether. We could look back 

 down the gorge and see the serpentine 

 track as it wound its way hither and 

 thither, and in looking up the gorge we 

 could sometimes catch a glimpse of the 

 train ahead of us, toiling its way slowly 

 around some curve. More than once did 

 the passengers of one train wave their 

 handkerchiefs to the passengers of the 

 other train across the gorge. 



Dotting the side of the mountain, here 

 and there, could be seen what reminded 

 me of enormous woodchuck holes. A 

 little hut and close beside it a great pile 



