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the east side of the Moreno, upon which Willow Gulch embouches, the 

 part performed by the little tributary up to a very recent date is plainly 

 indicated by the long train of debris which its. floods have swept out 

 into the valley, like the tailings of some immense placer- washing. 



Some ten miles across from the Cimarron CaSon, in a southwesterly 

 direction, a well-constructed Government road leads to the summit of 

 Taos Pass, by which exit communication is gained with the valley of the 

 Eio Grande. The watershed, which is a comparatively low divide, 

 along its course bounding the Moreno Valley, is here broken down, afford- 

 ing a passage in elevation above the level of the sea about 8,850 feet. 

 The pass lies over a narrow ridge, with rather sharp descents on either 

 side for a short distance, when its approaches are so gradual as scarcely 

 to give a premonition of proximity to one of the great natural highways 

 across the Spanish range. On the summit are observed fragments of 

 partially-metamorphosed reddish sandstone, together with other erratic 

 masses. Looking off to the east, a part of the Moreno Valley is over- 

 looked, and just beyond rise the mountain-masses on the east side of 

 the valley. These consist of immense broad- based, low-crowned sum- 

 mits, darii with tracts of spruce-forests, amidst which are scattered 

 extensive mountain-meadows and groves of aspen, which lessen their 

 otherwise somber, monotonous aspect. These hills forcibly remind 

 one 01 the broad-crested mountain-range which traverses Vermont and 

 Western Massachusetts; a resemblance which will probably be found 

 to possess even closer relationship in the similarity of geological struc- 

 ture. 



It affords me much satisfaction to be permitted to announce in this 

 place the discovery, by my friend Mr. Frank Springer, of Carboniferous 

 strata in situ in the Taos Caiion, on the western declivity of the main 

 range. On a recent journey (April) across the range to Taos, Mr. Sprin- 

 ger was struck by the familiar appearance of certain deposits along the 

 hemmed-in valley down which the Government road passes from Taos 

 Pass, and, dismounting to prosecute a hasty examination, he found him- 

 self in the midst of a rich fauna, the fades of which indicate the most 

 intimate relationship of the strata in which it occurs to the Upper Coal- 

 Measure deposits in the region of the Lower Missouri. Among the 

 forms recognized by Mr. Springer are Spirifer cameratus, Athyris subti- 

 lita, Betzia Mormonii, several species of Froductus, and numerous Cri- 

 noidal remains. The fossils are associated in a dark calcareous shale, 

 which extends from the lowest outcrop examined, at a point some 

 eight miles from Taos, up the caiion several miles. The strata bear 

 evident indications of great disturbance, being tilted "in various direc- 

 tions, and which apparently exist in considerable thickness. The dis- 

 covery of th'ese beds affords ample confirmation of the suppositions 

 expressed by Dr. Hayden in 1869 that the Carboniferous and older 

 Palaeozoic formations " once existed all along the western side of the 

 mountains". 



On the upper course of the Moreno, in the vicinity of Elizabethtown, 

 is situated one of the famous mining-centers of the Territory. The 

 auriferous lodes intersecting Great Baldy have squandered their wealth, 

 distributing it in the beds of the gulches furrowing its sides, and which 

 the denuding agencies have transported far down into the neighboring 

 valleys. In former years, vast mining-schemes were projected, and large 

 sums expended in carrying them 'out ; but to-day, if the operations are 

 less stupendous, they are certainly conducted in a most thorough and 

 systematic manner. In the lower course of Grouse Gulch, Messrs. Low- 

 thian and Middleton are working an extensive placer-claim, by the 



