289 



"biy are the palms and broad linear sed^^e-Iike leaves. But in this par- 

 ticular, the region is almost absolutely unexplored, and what careful 

 research would here reveal, we might be justified in entertaining ex- 

 travagant conjectures from the results attending the more detailed 

 explorations of the fossil flora in other quarters. 



THE MOKENO VALLEY. 



The mouth of the Cimarron Yalley rapidly narrows, and some three 

 miles above the town the border-hills converge, confining the stream to 

 a narrow gorge-like valley, which becomes narrower and more rugged 

 as we ascend, and hemmed in by precipitous walls of Tertiary sandstone 

 and steep slopes descending to the margin of the water. The valley, or 

 lower caQon, has a northwesterly course, and an average gradient 

 throughout of about 75 feet to the mile. Perhaps four or five miles 

 above its mouth, the last exposure of the Cretaceous shales, which hith- 

 erto outcrop in the foot of the hills, appears in the north bank of the 

 stream, where they show a thickness of about 50 feet, reaching from the 

 water's edge to the demarkation of the apparently not unconformable 

 Tertiary deposits. The latter here consist, at base, of indurated arena- 

 ceous shales, light yellowish or buff in color. At this point, the road 

 follows the south side of the stream, and a rise, to avoid a narrow, rock- 

 bound gorge, takes us above the Cretaceous, before regaining the stream, 

 a few hundred yards above the exposure. 



Thence to Ute Valley, six or seven miles, the entire height of the in- 

 closing walls of the valley is composed of the Tertiary sandstone, great 

 blocks of which are scattered over the less abrupt declivities or piled 

 into the bed of the stream. Just before emerging into Ute Valley, 

 through rifts in the pine- and spruce-forests, a glimpse of the park-like 

 opening is gained ; the long crest of Little Baldy, broken down to the 

 south in the deep gorge through which the upper caiion lies, filling the 

 background framed between the steep Tertiary walls which hem in the 

 foot of the valley. 



This little valley is the southernmost in this district of a chain of simi- 

 lar parks extending along the flank of the metamorphic belt at the base 

 of the main range, and which reach far to the north into Colorado. Its 

 southern or short side is bounded by the steep granitic slopes which 

 descend to the south margin of the iutervale-bordered Cimarron, and 

 thence the open, terraced plain rapidly rises to the northwest, as it 

 approaches the source of Ute Creek in Great Baldy, which lies at the 

 head of the valley, or some eight miles from its foot. The low, flat- 

 topped Tertiary hills form the eastern border of the valley, the sandstone 

 showing a slight dip in that direction. To the west lie the rugged gran- 

 itic foot-hills, which rise in extensive "flats" up into the ridge extend- 

 ing southward from Great Baldy, and which just peers above timber- 

 line in the crest of Little Baldy Mountain. It is very probable that the 

 more or less metamorphosed and tilted Cretaceous and Tertiary forma- 

 tions intervene and rise up on the lower flank of these mountain-eleva- 

 tions. The mountains'are intersected by pretty open glades, or " flats", 

 aftbrdiug pasturage for the stock belonging to the farms in the valley, 

 which latter contains an area of about three thousand acres, much of 

 which is adapted to agricultural purposes. 



Along the Cimarron, the valley has an altitude of about 7,200 feet ; 

 the rise to its head, in a distance of five or six miles, probably reaching 

 above 8,000 feet. Throughout its course, gold is distributed in the 

 superficial deposits, and which is now being mined in the upper portion 



