DENVER & RIO GRAXDE WESTERN ROUTE. 123 



of volcanic material that was long ago ^Yashed down to this position 

 from a lava flow. This material, which is soft and easily washed by 

 the rains, has slumped down the hillsides until it has given the surface 

 a general hununocky appearance. 



The valley at Avon is nearly a mile wide, and in summer it pre- 

 sents a beautiful appearance, with field after field of gi-ain rippling 

 in the wind and here and there a well-kept fannhouse peeping from 

 a grove of cottonwood trees. The farms extend about a mile below 

 the village to a point where the bluff on the east side swings in 

 against the river, cutting off the farming land and rendering the 

 valley rough and broken. The railroad, which has been forced to 

 follow the river along the west (left) side of the valley, swings to 

 the right in a broad curve at Edwards siding, just beyond milepost 

 312, and continues on that side for some distance. As the railroad 

 is high above the river and skirts the bluffs along the east side, the 

 traveler has an unobstructed view of the full sweep of the valley. 

 (See PI. LVI, A.) A large valley comes in from the southwest 

 (left), and soon the high peaks of the Holy Cross Eange burst into 

 view. The view near milepost 313 is one of the most attractive on 

 the road, especially in early summer, when the summits are still cov- 

 ered with the snow of the previous winter, or in early autumn, when 

 they are white with the first snow of the season. One can look 

 across the grassy bottom of Eagle River, dotted with herds of cattle, 

 to the ranches on the opposite side, where field after field of grain 

 or hay stretches up the side valley as far as the eye can see and 

 even climbs the opposite slope to the highest terrace. Here and 

 there ranch houses are embowered in groves of trees, and the white 

 schoolhouse, with its bright-red roof, gives a touch of color to the 

 pastoral scene. The green fields, especially when the afternoon 

 shadows begin to lengthen, look like velvet, and one would have to 

 travel far to find a landscape more beautiful. 



In the movements that have raised the mountains the soft rocks 

 have been crumpled and folded or crushed and broken in a very 

 complex manner. Just beyond Allenton siding, beyond milepost 

 314, the beds of rock are magnificently exposed on the east (right), 

 for here an old bend in the river threw it against the foot of the 

 bluff, where it washed away all loose material. Here the beds of 

 rock stand nearly vertical, but within a short distance they show a 

 tendency to flatten and pass with slight dips under the river, which 

 here swings sharply to the right. The traveler can see that the 

 rocks here are prevailingly soft and that only here and there thin 

 beds of sandstone stand out like giant ribs on the face of the cliff. 

 The colors of the rocks are variegated, but there is enough red and 

 deep brown in them to give the hills a warm tint. 



