close in upon the base of the main ranf;'e, thus crowding the intervening 

 still older sedimentary formations into a much more contracted belt 

 than that over which they extend along the course of the Vermejo, by 

 steeply tilting or bodily lifting them up on the summit of the axis of 

 elevation, are questions which remain for future explorations to deter- 

 mine. But, as we have already seen to the south, in the Vermejo Park, 

 so to the north, in the Francisco Park, the great dike-ridge of lower 

 Cretaceous sandstone re-appears, where it presents, as shall be shown 

 farther on, a much nearer resemblance to the topographical appearance 

 it exhibits still farther to the north, where it is crowded up and some- 

 times toppled over, as along the .foot of the outlying mountains sur- 

 rounding Pike's Peak. 



From tlieopen glade-like depression, over which lies the Francisco Pass, 

 the trail at once begins the descent through a narrow valley inclosed 

 between steep Tertiary hill-sides, the bed of which, now dry, bears 

 ample evidence of violent floods during the rainy season. Perhaps fiv^e 

 miles to the northeast of the summit, the valley suddenly opens out into 

 a charming little i)ark of some three or four hundred acres extent, which 

 is traversed by the Francisco, or an independent affluent of the Purga- 

 tory, from the point where it emerges from the hog-back ridge at the 

 head of the park. The valley has an altitude of about 7,800 feet, indi- 

 cating a descent of 800 feet from the Francisco Pass. Its bed is occu- 

 pied by a level bench, the stream being bordered by a narrow intervale, 

 from wliich a range of low sparsely-wooded mesas immediately rises on 

 the north side, extending to the foot of the park, which are apparently 

 composed of Tertiary deposits and overspread with the bowlder and 

 pebble-charged drift. A pretty little open valley separates this low ridge 

 from the high Tertiary table-land immediately on the north, which sweeps 

 down in a long gradual descent from the mountain declivity on the west, 

 and which occupies the upland interval between the park and one of 

 the main branches of the Francisco or Purgatory to the north. In the 

 gap to the west, the Vermejo Mountains burst into view, their nearness 

 permitting a careful study of the toi^ographic il features which diversify 

 their eastward aspect; profound gulches, sharp buttress-spurs, steep 

 debris-covered inclines springing from the foot of bastioned escari)ments 

 and inaccessible walls, over which tower sharp cones, enormous dis- 

 mantled heights, and massive domes to the height of 5,000 or 6,000 feet 

 above the little valley which nestles at their base ; it is one of the most 

 varied and sublime near-mountain scenes in the West. 



Beyond the massive metamor[)hic hills, here and there appear wooded 

 peaks and rounded crests to the south of the Vermejos. The foot of 

 the paik is closed in by long grassy slopes, gradually ascending to the 

 steeper declivities of the sandstone hills which descend from the Eaton 

 ridge just to the south, and which a mile or so lower down close in 

 upon the stream, confining it to a narrow valley, but only to open out 

 into a similar park-like expansion a few miles lower down, in which is 

 established a little placita, or Mexican hamlet. The stream, a beautiful 

 clear trout-brook, flowing over a bed of gravel and bowlders, and fringed 

 with willow and cottonwood, is turned into an intricacy of channels and 

 pools by the <lamming at the foot of the valley — the solid structures of 

 the beaver, w hi* h abounds in all these mountain-streams. The irrigating 

 acequias, which are taken out along the stream and carried across the 

 high bottom-terrace, reveal in their deep washes the red clayey nature 

 of the superficial deposits which accumulated in these open spaces when 

 they constituted so many little lake-basins, and whose drainage, the 

 result of slow, persistent erosion, by which means the intervening sand- 



