96 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



From the village of Nathrop the traveler, on looking back to 

 the east, may obtain a good idea of the kind of country the granite 



makes somes distance back from the main drainage 

 Nathrop. lines. It forms a plateau or table-land that rises 



Elevation 7,696 feet, from 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the level of the valley. 

 Denv'e^?33 mnts. "^^^^^ plateau is probably a remnant of a once 



rolling surface that extended over most of the 

 mountain country and that has been described as a peneplain. 



ments of the law as to what consti- 

 tutes a claim. 



AVhen au application for mineral 

 patent is now received for a piece of 

 land in a national forest the land is 

 examined by an experienced, qualified 

 mining expert of the Forest Service to 

 determine the validity of the claim. 

 If the claim is found to be invalid 

 the evidence of its invalidity is sub- 

 mitted to the General Land Office, 

 where action on the application for 

 patent is taken. Such examinations 

 have done much to stop the exploita- 

 tion of other than mineral land under 

 the mining laws as well as the whole- 

 sale location of timber by an indi- 

 vidual or company to the detriment 

 of the lone prospector. 



Particular attention is given by the 

 Forest Service to tlie preservation and 

 protection of timber in regions where 

 it may be needed for prospecting and 

 mining. A prospector can obtain tim- 

 ber to develop his claim from the na- 

 tional forest without charge, but a 

 paying mine must buy its timber. 

 Where forest land in a mining district 

 is sold care is taken to leave on it 

 sufficient timber for its exploitation 

 as mineral land should mineral de- 

 posits he found on it. 



Roads, trails, and telephone lines are 

 built by the Government through na- 

 tional forests to make them accessible 

 for administration and protection. 

 These conveniences are open to the 

 prospector, who in turn is welcomed 

 by the forest officer because of the as- 

 sistance he is able to render in report- 



ing fires or the misuse of forest prop- 

 erty. Very little of the timber, how- 

 ever, tliat is used in the tunnels, shafts, 

 and stopes of the Leadville mines has 

 been obtained from the basin of Ar- 

 kansas River. Practically all of it 

 has been obtained from Frjingpan 

 Creek, in tlie Sopris National Forest, 

 and from the Eagle River country, in 

 the Holy Cross National Forest. Most 

 of the round timbers that are loaded 

 on freight care at Mitchell, Pando, or 

 Red Cliff, on the other side of the 

 Continental Divide, are destined for 

 the Leadville mines. 



The forests around Leadville are 

 composed almost entirely of lodgepole 

 pine (see PI. XXXVI, B), and the city 

 stands in the upper part of the zone of 

 this tree. The traveler will note the 

 large number of young trees scattered 

 over stump areas or ai*eas in which 

 dead standing trees give evidence of 

 forest fires. Lodgepole pine seeds 

 readily in the soil and ash of fire- 

 swept districts, for the cones that con- 

 tain the seed may remain on the tree 

 year after year without opening, 

 though the seed continues fertile. In 

 this way large quantities of fertile seed 

 accumulate on the trees, so that when 

 a forest fire occurs the cones are slowly 

 opened by the heat, and the seeds are 

 released and fall in great numbers to 

 the ground to sprout and grow, if the 

 weather is favorable. Where the 

 growth of lodgepole pine after a fire 

 is scattering the fire may have been so 

 severe that it burned up a large num- 

 ber of the cones, or favorable weather 



