16 COLORADO COLLEGE STUDIES. 



depressed in a sort of recess or bay at Maiiitou and to the 

 northward, and these older sedimentary beds rest upon them, 

 and outcrop in their regular order, showing themselves for 

 several miles up the Ute Pass. To the northwest of the Ute 

 Pass and continuing in the same direction, extends a long, 

 narrow strip of the same series of sedimentary formations. 

 Probably these two areas were once continuous and have 

 since been separated by erosion. At the lower end of the 

 latter, or Manitou Park, area, a prominent fault having a slip 

 of three or four hundred feet follows the junction of the 

 granite with the southern side of the sedimentary beds,* and 

 at Manitou, near the Rainbow Falls, there is also a fault with 

 a slip of twenty feet or more, which takes about the same 

 direction. It is probable that these faults form a continuous 

 fissure over the short interval between the two areas, and 

 quite possible that the influence of this fissure or slip de- 

 termined the course of the stream which cut the Ute Pass 

 so deeply in the rocks. From the prevailingly slight dip of 

 the strata it is probable that the sedimentary beds at Manitou 

 do not extend to very great depths beneath the surface, and 

 the same observation applies also to those at Manitou Park. 

 At Manitou the general inclination of the beds is to the 

 southeast, though there are several folds which steeply incline 

 some portions of them just west of the city. There are, how- 

 ever, in the vicinity of the springs at Manitou, a couple of 

 small flexures of strata, indicated mainly by rock exposures 

 on the north side of the valley which should be noticed. 

 They run transversely across the valley, and may be described 

 as being only more abrupt or sudden inclinations of the 

 southeastwardly dipping strata. It is at the crests of these 

 low folds that the springs apj)ear. The oldest limestones are 

 very silicious, and in places just west of Manitou where they 

 are shattered and bent, often contain cavities filled with 

 argillaceous red oxide of iron. The "Caverns" so much 

 visited at Manitou occur in the limestone, and show the re- 

 sults of a former great chemical activity at that point. When 

 first discovered, very considerable beds of the same ferrugin- 



• Soo the Pike's Peak Folio, edition of 1892, U. S. Geological Survey. 



