DEISTVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



115 



A little below this point, at the signal toTver of Deen, is the be- 

 ginning of the double track that extends from that place through 

 Eagle Canyon to Minturn. 



The railroad follows the outcrop of the bedded rocks, which main- 

 tains, at least as far as Pando, about the same relative position as 

 when first seen — that is, about 500 feet above the valley floor on the 

 west and 100 to 150 feet on the east. Just after passing milepost 

 288, half a mile above Pando, the traveler may see on the east (right) 

 a low ridge of gravel, which extends across the valley and which is 

 thought by some geologists to have constituted the terminal moraine 

 of a very old glacier that once came down Home- 

 P^"<*°' stake Valley from the southwest, though the writer 



Eiovation 9,209 feet, thinks that it was more probably the terminal 



Denver 289 miles. . , ^ i • xi ^ i 



moraine oi a great glacier that came down to 

 this point from Fremont Pass; but, as already stated, the region 

 has not been examined with sufficient care to justify a definite state- 

 ment on this subject. The trench that the stream has cut in the 

 moraine has been filled by an artificial dam, and the pond above the 

 dam is utilized for making ice. 



At Pando the railroad turns abruptly to the right and follows the 

 river across the broad valley to its eastern wall. The reason for this 

 abrupt change in the course of the railroad from one side of the 

 valley to the other is that half a mile below Pando the valley, 

 although broad, is almost completely blocked by a great mass of 

 gravel and boulders, which was brought down by a glacier that once 

 descended Homestake Creek, on the west, but pushed a tongue of 

 ice into this valley. (See PL LII.) The material brought in by 

 this glacier obstructed the drainage of the valley so much that the 

 river was forced against the east side, and the railroad has followed 

 the pathway kept open by the stream. The course of Eagle Eiver 

 has been greatly affected by this glacier and by the morainic material 

 which it deposited.^^ 



** A critical observer will see clearly 

 that Eagle River did not originally 

 find its outlet down its present canyon 

 below Pando, which is too narrow for 

 a stream of its volume, but that it 

 once flowed westward across the low 

 divide to Homestake Creek. (See PI. 

 LII.) In other words, Eagle River 

 here once turned to the west (left) 

 and flowed northward down what is 

 now the lower course of Homestake 

 Creek. The interesting question then 

 arises, What could have happened to 

 cause a stream like Eagle River, firmly 



intrenched in a deep valley, to change 

 its course and carve for itself a new 

 valley? Manifestly a stream can not 

 make such a change unless it is com- 

 pelled to do so by some obstruction. 

 What could have been the obstruction? 

 As there is conclusive evidence that 

 the valley of Homestake Creek was 

 once occupied by a great glacier it 

 seems obvious that ice was the bar- 

 rier which prevented Eagle River from 

 pursuing its original course and forced 

 it to seek a new outlet toward the 

 north. The conditions as they were 



