SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 137 



like dim lines, are traced across the broad meadowy expanse. Eonnded 

 ridges, level surface terraces, straight foot-hills, with green swarded 

 escarpments and isolated buttes till up the outline. Sinking into tlie 

 bluft' on which we have been standing, we pass alternating strata of 

 coal and iron ore. Here they quietly rest, rich, thick, and abundant — 

 the fuel and the metal. The one to convert the other into instruments 

 to till the soil, to harvest the grain, to thresh and garner it, to convert 

 it into food, to make the highway of transportation, and carry it to the 

 miners of the mountains and the snow-bound dwellers in the far north. 

 Such a combination is seldom seen. And, though not directly embraced 

 in the object of this report, yet I feel justified in alluding to it, for the 

 reason that the opening and development of these mines are intimately 

 connected with the agricultural development of the country. The ag- 

 ricultural instruments now in use are brought from the States at an 

 expense of transportation equal to their original cost. This need not be 

 so ; Colorado has her coal, her iron, and, in part, her timber. It only 

 needs to be developed and applied to that purpose for which nature has 

 so bountifully provided it. 



Descending from our elevated position, and continuing our course 

 southward, after passing some minor streams, we reach Coal Creek, also 

 a tributary of Boulder Creek. But this is not an unfailing stream, and 

 although some farms are found along its valley, yet it cannot be de- 

 pended upon for irrigating purposes. Clear Creek, which passes within 

 four miles of Denver, gives a valley of eighteen miles before it empties 

 into the South Platte. It is already lined with well cultivated farms and 

 comfortable houses, from which the Denver market is in part supplied 

 with grain, vegetables, and meat. Finally, in our course southward, we 

 reach Bear Creek, the last of the series of these transverse streams, Avhich, 

 after a short run of nine or ten miles from the mountains, pours its 

 waters into South Platte. A short distance below this we arrive at the 

 apex of the triangle before described, which contains, including the 

 Platte Valley, about 800,000 acres of land. Of this amount about one- 

 third is bottom land, the remainder forming the ridges and terraces 

 which lie between the valleys. The greater portion of this entire tri- 

 angular section is susceptible of cultivation, and the remainder well 

 adapted to grazing purposes. The bottoms along these creeks vary 

 from half a mile to four or five miles in width, giving, perhaps, an aver- 

 age width of two or two and a half miles. Between these valleys are 

 the more elevated portions, forming, sometimes, rounded ridges, at 

 others, regular terraces or benches, or rolling, gradually descending- 

 prairies, but seldom rising into abrupt hills; the whole face of the 

 countr}' being richly carpeted with nutritious grasses. These ridges, 

 which border the valleys, vary in their elevation above the water level 

 of the creeks from a few feet, out on the plains, to forty and fifty feet 

 near the base of the mountain, and, with few exceptions, are in reach 

 of water sufficient for irrigation. 



The valley of the South Platte is undoubtedly the most important, ex- 

 tensive, and fertile strij) of tillable land in the northern portion of the 

 Territory. But the descent being less in this river than in the smaller 

 streams we have been describing, ditching, for irrigation, is more expen- 

 sive. Yet it is rapidly filling up with an enterprising farming popula- 

 tion, and is being brought under an intelligent and profitable system of 

 cultivation. 



