202 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



The first mines in the Teller District were discovered in 1879, ^'^^ ^^"^ ^ 

 while there was a rush of miners, but most of them soon left and in part of 1879 

 and 1880 there were only five miners on Jack's Creek. These were Lefevre, Pay- 

 son, Halstead, Latham and Fuller. The first house was built at the mines in 

 1879 and first house in Teller City in May, 1880. In June, 1881, Teller City 

 had a population of about six hundred and one newspaper. Charles Smith was 

 the discoverer of the "Endomile." Discoveries have been made all the way 

 from Rabbit's Ear Mountain to lUinois Creek, but no real mining except on the 

 east side of the Park. Mining has been done all the way from 9,000 feet eleva- 

 tion near Teller, up to the snow line, chiefly under the S"hadow of the thickly 

 timbered mountain sides. 



The wild game is fast leaving. In 1880 elk, antelope and black-tailed deer 

 were continually seen. In 1881 the antelope could be commonly seen in the 

 Park but were getting shy. The others had retreated to the mountains. 



The Medicine Bow Mountains and those east and south of the Park are gen- 

 erally clothed with a dense pine growth (I'mus contorta). In many places the 

 ground is covered with masses of fallen dead timber, sometimes even equaling 

 one-fourth as many trees as those remaining erect, and making the way entirely 

 impassable. Fires are sometimes very destructive. Three years ago the Utes 

 set fire to the woods and thousands of acres of good timber were destroyed. Sev- 

 eral times I saw as much as a thousand acres of dead standing trees, which gave 

 a very desolate appearance to the landscape. 



At one place I observed the pathway of a former snowslide. The avalanche 

 had swept every tree even from its roots in its pathway from mountain top to 

 valley, and was apparently not less than a quarter of a mile wide. 



The pineries afford the material of which the houses are built, the shafts 

 cribbed and long straight poles are hauled out fifteen to twenty-five miles into the 

 park and used for fencing the ranches. 



In Wet Mountain valley the aspen {Fopulus tremulotdes) abounds and affords 

 excellent fuel. Ascending the mountains over 9,000 feet elevation, the pine gives 

 place to the spruce and fir, the Ficea engelmanus being abundant. These grow 

 to a large size and stand thick on the mountain sides. With these, and reaching 

 high up the mountains, we find a dwarf huckleberry {Vacciumwi myrtillus). 

 Around Teller we observed the strawberry, raspberry and currant. The wild sage 

 {Artemisia frigida) and greasewood stand thickly over the North Park and abound 

 on the Laramie plains. Several species of native grass, some very much resem- 

 bling our blue grass, are abundant in the Park and on Laramie plains. 



Of plants common to either Missouri or Kansas, I observed not over a dozen, 

 including a Delphinuni, the strawberry, Cleome integrifolia, Malvastum coccinneum y 

 Oxytropus lambertii, Dodecatheon meadea, Sysirhynchium bermudiana, Aliiuni j uncus, 

 and Triticuvi repens. There may be a few more. 



Fremont in his second Report Across the Plains and Mountains in 1843 speaks 

 glowingly of the flora in crossing the Laramie Plains and Medicine Bow Moun- 

 tains. And he spoke the entire truth, for it is of remarkable beauty. The Del- 



