296 



desolated but forbiddiug spots, eveii whose crystal waters are turned to 

 mud, desecrated by the prosaic results of the search for treasure. 



Along Willow Gulch, which is here a narrow defile bordered by steep 

 acclivities, the placers are still being worked to the extent of the water- 

 supply. One is struck with the vast quantiiies of coarse materials pre- 

 dominating in the drift debris of this high mountain-gulch. However, 

 in some of the shallower lateral ravines, finer deposits are observed, and 

 at one point, during the winter, tunnels were drifted into the bank 

 along or in quest of pay-streaks upon the " bed-rock ". The climb of half 

 a mile or so out of the gulch, by a trail sufficiently precipitous for prac- 

 ticable traveling, and the summit of Blackhorse Pass is gained, nearly 

 six miles by the route due east of Elizabeth town. The crest of the 

 saddle, now bare, was formerly clothed with a dense forest of small 

 spruce, whose naked blanched trunks, prostrated by the fierce gales that 

 sweep the summit, form formidable abatis over extensive tracts of the 

 mountain-side, with here and there clumps of bare poles still standing, 

 weird evidences of the devastation wrought by the fires. 



THE VERMEJO PAUKS. 



In October, 1874, I was favored with the opportunity of joining a 

 party of gentlemen on a week's hunting and pleasure excursion to the 

 interesting region of the sources of the Vermejo, in the northwestern 

 portion of the district under consideration. Our route led up the valley 

 of the Van Brimmer, the entrance of which is reached some twelve miles 

 to the northward of the Cimarron, passing on the way the Poiiil and 

 Oerososo, up whose valleys we have a distant view of the long ridge of 

 Costilla Peak. The entrance to this little valley seems to foreshadow at 

 the outset its character throughout, a promise which is fully verified. 



It can hardly with propriety be termed a caiion, although its lower 

 course and intervals above are bordered by the high bluffs of the Ter- 

 tiary formation, from the base of which a talus over the Cretaceous shales 

 sweeps down into the valley for a short distance above its embouchure. 

 The greater extent of the valley lies entirely in the Tertiary deposits, as 

 is the case with all the streams intersecting the great plateau ; but the 

 Van Brimmer may be distinguished from the others by the mild ex- 

 pression, so to speak, of its topographical features, and which render it 

 a favorite route to the i)ark country. Rising just on the edge of the 

 park at its head, it would api)ear to have been less actively engaged in 

 the drainage of the chain of old reservoirs than many of its companion 

 streams; consequently, acting the office of a quiet waste-escape for 

 the waters which flowed over the barrier at its head, its bed exhibits 

 scarcely any of those bold features which are attributable to violent 

 erosive action. Indeed, for a distance of several miles its bed and sur- 

 roundings become almost monotonous from their repetition every mile 

 of the way, presenting a shallow trough gently flaring up into the 

 bolder acclivities which hem in the valley, but which is redeemed by 

 those accessories which nature so effectively employs in embellishing 

 alike the level plains and rugged hills. The pine- and piiion-covered. 

 heights form a pleasing contrast with the light shades of the close 

 herbage carpeting the lower depressions, relieved on the steeper slopes 

 by patches of the rich-hued. autumn foliage of the dwarf-oak, designs 

 excelling the most beautiful tapestries, which seem to have been con- 

 ceived in imitation of these natural patterns so prevalent in the valleys 

 and on the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado. 



About midway of the valley, the hills approacJi from the opposite 



