177 



are hundreds of other similar streams that can he used just as well, if 

 not even better than these. 



While crossing the great slide on the trail, we could see miners at 

 work against the bluffs on the west side of the river ; curious looking 

 zigzag trails led up to these mines. Others were tunneling from the 

 bed of the stream, and seemed to be in a poor position in case of a great 

 spring-thaw, as all their work would then be wasted. At one place we 

 saw an ice-bridge over the stream, w"hich struck us as a novelty, for the 

 middle of August, at an elevation of only 10,000 feet, in this latitude. 

 Ata point about five miles below the Three Forks the steep slide across 

 which we were riding abruptly ended, and we came out into a thick 

 clump of trees in which were several log-cabins, bearing on a flaring 

 sign-board the word " Eureka," evidently intended for the name of a 

 town that was expected to be, though what had been found here to sug- 

 gest the name was not immediately apparent. It is not impossible, 

 however, that the first settler coming up the Animas here found his far- 

 ther upward progress barred by the great rock-slide. At this point the 

 bed of the carton suddenly widens out to a quarter of a mile or more in 

 breadth, forming the upper end of Baker's Park. A great portion of 

 the level ground is here covered by willows and swale-grass, cut through 

 and through by old beaver-ditches. After leaving Eureka, the ground 

 is very uneven, and quite devoid of timber, except up the sides of the 

 caiion. 



The bluffs on the west side become more and more precipitous, and 

 less broken up by gorges ; while on the east the few bluffs which pre- 

 sented themselves farther up stream are exchanged for steep rocky 

 mountain-slopes, with few bluffs. At a point about three miles below 

 Eureka the Animas is joined by Cunningham Creek, a considerable 

 tributary, coming in from the east side. Howardville, containing at the 

 present time some eighteen or twenty log-cabins, is situated on both 

 sides of this stream, near its mouth. This is the first settlement in 

 Baker's Park, and among its other attractions can boast of a store, a 

 butcher-shop, assay-office, shoemaker-shop, and post-office. Although 

 as yet there is no regular mail-communication with the outside world, 

 it is expected that a regular mail-route will soon be established by the 

 Post-Oifice Department. All mail is now brought in from Del i^oite by 

 occasional travelers, and letters cost ten cents besides the regular United 

 States postage. 



From this position a splendid view of some of the silver-veins can 

 be obtained. The face of the high bluff's, west of the town and across 

 the river, is covered with a net-work of yellow veins, extending from 

 the bed of the stream up as far as we could see. Later we found that 

 these same veins cropped out on the other side of the mountain, indi- 

 vidual veins being continuous the whole distance. We found some of 

 them crossing the highest point of the ridge at an elevation of 13,500 

 feet, thus giving a vertical depth for the outcrop of 3,800 feet, while the 

 horizontal distance was not less than the thickness of the ridge, a 

 length of from three to four miles. How much farther they may have 

 extended horizontally, we could not make out in our limited time. 



At a point nearly west of Howardville the bluffs end, and steep grassy 

 and rocky slopes take their place and continue to the lower end of the 

 park. 



On August 16, the day after our arrival at the town, we crossed the river 

 and ascended a peak northwest of Howardville, but not quite visible 

 from that place on account of the intervening bluffs. The slopes were 

 all grassy, but so steep that we could ride but a small part of the dis- 



