REPORT ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SAN JUAN COUNTRY. 



Bv Franklin Rhoda, Assistant TopoGRAriiER. 



In tlie following report I have adopted the very common system of 

 describing- the country in the order of our travels tbrougli it. Tbe 

 system is a very faulty one, but seemed to be the best possible under 

 the circumstances. In describing a river or a simple range of mount- 

 ains, the order of description is laid down in nature ; all you have to 

 do is to commence at one end of the line and follow along it. The 

 mountains in the so-called San Juau country, however, are very compli- 

 cated, and present no definite lines that may be followed in a descrip- 

 tiou without leaving much untold. They appear, not in a single range, 

 nor in a succession of ranges, but in a great mass. It was thought best 

 to intersperse here and there in the description of topography such 

 personal adventures of members of the party as might throw light on 

 any features of the country or its climate. 



We started from Colorado Springs on the 14th of July, 1874, taking the 

 road leading up the Fontaine qui Bouille, and over Ute Pass into South 

 Park. It would have been much shorter to have gone to Pueblo by rail, 

 and thence on horse or mule back around the southern end of the Green- 

 horn Mountains, through Huerfano Park and Mosca Pass, and across 

 San Luis Valley to Del Norte. But at this time of the year we knew 

 that along the low plains the heat would be intense and the grass and 

 water scarce. As it was we had a delightfully cool trip all the way, 

 with plenty of grass for our animals. Our road lay across South Park, 

 thence down the Arkansas River and across the range at Puncho Pass 

 into the San Luis Valley. We reached Saguache on the 24th of July, and 

 made inquiries of different persons as to the nature of the country for 

 which we were bound ; but although they were all deeply interested in the 

 prospects of the new mines', nobody could give us any definite information. 

 We could not even find out whether the country was made up of rugged 

 mountains or only high plateaus. Two days after leaving this place we 

 reached the Los Piuos agency, where the Southern Utes receive such 

 supplies as are apportioned to them by the Government. This point 

 was in the extreme southwest corner of the district surveyed in 1873, 

 and was the point of beginning the past summer. 



Our first station was made on a peak which had been occupied in 

 1873 as station 34. It is a low point, a few miles northwest of the 

 agency, and is under 12,000 feet in elevation. Having a most beautiful 

 day, and plenty of time at our disposal, we found it very pleasant to 

 study the country that appeared in the southwest, in which our sum- 

 mer's work was to be. We could see none of the very rugged masses 

 of mountains which beset our path and taxed our energies in the months 

 following. What did ajipear to us was as follows: A little to the west 

 of south, and not more thau fifteen miles distant, rose up the high group 

 in whicli station 33 of 1873 was situated, and containing several peaks 

 ranging in height from 13,500 to near 14,000 feet. Farther around to the 

 west, but mucli more distant, appeared a high pyramidal-shaped peak. 



