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from this time ou till fall, raiu commenced early every afteruoon, and 

 continued into the night. Moving up Godwin Creek, Dr. Eudlich made 

 a special examination of some of the highly-colored peaks already men- 

 tioned, while Wilson and I rode up to the head of the caiion and out 

 upon a high and pretty extensive plateau, which extends from a high, 

 sharp pinnacle a few miles west of Uncompahgre peak around the heads 

 of Godwin Creek and Lake Fork to the head of the Animas. It forms 

 the divide between these three streams and the Uncompahgre Eiver. An 

 area of fifteen or twenty square miles is above the timber-line. Ten or 

 fifteen square miles have an elevation of over 12,000 feet. The timber- 

 Ime here ranges from 11,500 to 11,900 feet above the sea. This whole 

 area is covered with a very short growth of grass, which is almost 

 entirely unfit for feed for animals. This is common with all the grass 

 growinghigh up on the mountains; itis not nutritious. Unlike theplateau 

 east of Lake JFork, this is not surrounded by bluffs. Instead of being 

 smooth and nearly level like the former, itis rolling and cut up by gulches. 

 The slopes down to the surrounding streams are steep, but bluffs are very 

 rare. The ground is not very rocky, but, like all the soil at this elevation, 

 it is very damp and boggy. A number of small lakes are dotted here and 

 there over it, and in m an y places sprin gs of ice-cold water gush out from the 

 rocky prominences, fed by the banks of eternal snow which are scattered 

 about in considerable numbers. In crossing this elevated region a strong 

 west wind was blowing, and, the temperature being below the freezing- 

 point, riding was very disagreeable both for our beasts and ourselves. 

 Under these circumstances we were not so observant as we should other- 

 wise have been. Still, there were so many new and interesting things 

 about us that we could not fail to notice some of them. 



The eastern half of the plateau drains out through a canon leading 

 northward and westward into the Uncompahgre Eiver. We crossed its 

 head on our tramp, and noticed that it fell very suddenly, till within 

 about two miles of us it became a deep, narrow caiion, at which point 

 the stream turned abruptly to the west. From this fact we were 

 enabled to get a good broadside view of the north bluff of the caSon, 

 and we saw it weathered out most curiously, being worn into almost 

 all conceivable fantastic shapes, the general appearance being that of a 

 great wall covered with niches and statuary. Time would not permit us 

 to go closer and make a more careful examination; so we had to content 

 ourselves with a distant view. From the headwaters of this creek we 

 crossed a divide running laterally across the pleateau, and for some 

 distance the drainage was into Godwin Creek, until, near the peak upon 

 which we made our station, the water again flowed to the north. From 

 station 10 the caiion of the Uncompahgre Eiver appeared in all its 

 ruggedness. From" here we got a fine view of Mount Sneffels and its 

 surroundings. We could see no possibility of ascending the peak from 

 the east side, as it Avas cut up by rugged caiions and innumerable bluffs 

 and pinnacles ; these latter ornamenting all the ridges leading down 

 from the great peak and its near neighbors. 



In some places numbers of the i^innacles massed behind one another 

 presented the appearance of church-spires, only built after a much 

 grander style of architecture than most of our modern religious edifices. 

 In some places two systems of vertical pillars were separated by a narrow 

 strip of horizontal lava-flow, and served to heighten the fantastic appear- 

 ance of the rock-forms. The fact that we stood on a peak four or five 

 miles distant from the scene described will give some idea of the great 

 size of these pinnacle-forms. A month later we had another much nearer 

 and finer view of this same curious group from a peak several miles 



