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tiary sandstone rise on the margin of tlie parks, low terrace-levels 

 extending along the borders of the valley ; beyond are seen the metaraor- 

 phic ridges, and over these to the northwest the cloud-capped soutliern 

 peaks of the Vermejo Mountains. It only lacks the presence of civilized 

 homes, which no other region more cordially invites and which could in 

 no degree detract from the beauty of its parks or the grandeur of the 

 mountains, to render this one of the most attractive resorts in the 

 country. 



The Vermejo, which has here gathered to a fine mountain-brook, soon 

 Xilunges into the hills, which for six or seven miles closely hem the valley 

 in. The topographical features of nearly all these little valleys along 

 the margin of the parks, where they enter upon that part of their 

 course lying across the Tertiary plateau, are peculiar and quite per- 

 sistent in their manifestation. The uplands terminate in steep bluff 

 declivities along the stream, 100 to 300 feet or more in height; and 

 wherever they afford vistas of any considerable extent, the rapid 

 descent of the valleys is very appreciable in the lines of successively 

 lower ridges, which close in upon the lower course of the stream. This 

 is markedly exhibited on the Vermejo, as also in the Francisco Valley on. 

 the north side of the Eaton Hills; and what the view in that direction, 

 looking down the valleys, lacks in mountainous grandeur, is often amply 

 made up in picturesqueuess. The steep, wooded heights frequently 

 present a coping of light-red sandstone ; sometimes their abrupt de- 

 clivities are broken by an outlying mass resembling a dismantled 

 fortress or watch tower guarding the approaches of some little inter- 

 vale-expansion hidden in the seclusion of the narrow valley, or rounded 

 summits, clothed with open forest-growth and herbage, indicate the 

 presence of a shaly horizon of the formation. 



The little stream is clear and cold, its pools furnishing abundant con- 

 tributions of delicious trout, whose individual variableness is almost as 

 striking as that of some aquarial si)ecies ; but on our return, three days 

 later, no amount of dexterity and patience, coaxing and piscatorial 

 wickedness, could prevail on the finny gormands to take the fly, so 

 satiated were they of a day's feasting provided by the sudden invasion 

 of locusts that swept down from the north. Where the stream flows 

 through an intervale-bordered expansion, its banks reveal a depth of 

 rich soil, which rests upon the coarse materials of the drift. Frequently, 

 the alluvial or lacustral deposits extend up on the val-ley-sides on ap- 

 proaching a contraction in the valley, where the stream forces its way 

 through some gorge, which apparently indicates their accumulation 

 when a barrier extended across the foot of the valley, backing its 

 waters into a little lake-basin. 



Some seven miles below the point where we regained the Vermejo, the 

 valley widens out into quite an extensive park, in which a number of 

 American families have established comfortable homes, surrounded by 

 ])leasant fields, whose fertility is evidenced by stacks of grain and well- 

 filled vegetable-cellars. The park is formed by the union with the main 

 valley of a considerable lateral valley, which rises in the divide south of 

 the headwaters of the Canadian. A low terrace-bench occuj)ies the 

 angle between the two valleys, which is made up of darkish shales, 

 covered by accumulations of drift. The surrounding flat toi)ped hills 

 are composed of the Tertiary sandstones, which, in the canon above, dip 

 gently northwest. Here, as also below, in the dark shales in the foot of 

 the hills, a thin layer of lignite o(;curs. At the lower end of the park, 

 the hills approach the stream, forming a sort of gateway, in the foot of 

 which gray shaly sandstone outcrops, in which were observed the im- 



