Se 
DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 95 
conceals the main sharp peak, and the mountain looks like a great 
round mass. Mount Harvard lies to the right of Mount Yale, and 
this mountain, as seen from any point on the line, presents the ap- 
pearance of a great mass without a definite or sharp top. 
Just before reaching Nathrop the railroad crosses Chalk Creek on 
a high bridge. The traveler may look up into the great canyon 
which this creek has cut in the Sawatch Range, whose base is only 
5 miles away, though the head of the creek is 20 miles farther back. 
The Colorado & Southern Railway has a narrow-gage road in opera- 
tion up this creek to the mining region about St. Elmo; it formerly 
crossed the range to Parlin and Gunnison, on the Marshall Pass 
branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, but the long summit 
tunnel has caved so badly that traffic beyond Hancock has been aban- 
doned. This road may be seen on the left just after the train passes 
the village of Nathrop. 
The gorge that Chalk Creek has cut through the mountains has 
been scoured by a great glacier, which has greatly broadened its 
bottom and smoothed its sides, but unfortunately the railroad is so 
far from the base of the mountains that the traveler can not see 
how much the ice modified the shape and appearance of the canyon 
nor the enormous terminal moraine, a mile long and several hundred 
feet high, that it built. This moraine lies outside the mountains, but 
it can not be seen from the train. 
The mountains on both sides of Arkansas Valley are included in 
the Leadville National Forest, in the administration of which the 
Forest Service has come into close contact and, at first, into con- 
flict with the miners regarding their right to cut ga © on the pub- 
lic domain. The manner in which this subject has been handled 
and an outline of the results obtained are given by Smith Riley, dis- 
trict forester, in the footnote.”° 
* As the train goes up the valley of | This question can be be 
Arkansas River from Salida to Buena | by giving a brief sketch of the prae- 
Vista the traveler sees the Collegiate | tices and customs of the mining com- 
Range on the west and the Trout 
east. These hills and mountains are 
all in the Leadville National aa 
Which covers an area o 
The celebrated Leadville and eae 
mit County mining districts of Colo- 
the Lea 
questi 
arises, t effect has the 
pret of these national forests 
had upon the mining industry—are 
they beneficial or detrimental to it? 
munities in the State at the time the 
forests were created as compared with 
those prevailing at the present time. 
In the early days, when “ mineral ” 
was discovered, it was the practice 
possi 
sequent to the discovery. No effort 
was made to conform with the require- 
