80 NEW TEACKS IX NOETH AMEEICA. 



del Maia. The Cimarron rises on tlie eastern and south-eastern 

 slopes of the Eaton Mountains, from springs amongst the 

 A^olcanic rocks ; thence it passes oyer this Mesa del Mala, 

 through which it cuts a channel, forming a canon known as 

 the Canon of the Cimarron. The Pm-gatoire (first changed 

 into Purgatory, and then corrupted into Pickel-Wire) rises 

 in the northern angle which the Eaton Mountains make with 

 the main chain. Along the base of those mountains it waters 

 a very fertile valley — the upper yalley of the Pm^gatoire — of 

 variable breadth, and about thirty miles long. The general 

 course is north-easterly. Coming, at length, into contact 

 with, or rather passing over, a northern continuation of the 

 Mesa del Maia, this riyer, like the Cimarronj forms a canon, 



» j 



within which it is enclosed for thii'ty-two miles. On omergmg . 

 from this defile the river flows more to the northward, thi'ough • 

 a succession of yalleys shut in hy bluffs, which re2:)resent the 

 abrupt termination of the table-lands on either side, for between 

 fifty-five and sixty miles, when it joins the Arkansas one mile 

 and a haK above Fort Lyon. Oui' course ran parallel to this 

 stream, partly in the valleys, but more generally on the di-y 

 level plateau lying to the west of them. 



On leaving Fort Lyon the surveyors crossed the Arkansas 

 Eiver about half a mile below the mouth of the Pui-gatoire, 

 in a boat which had just been built ; while the wagons, and } 

 those who were mounted, passed over on an eccentric ferry- 

 boat, which an energetic Yankee had established four miles 

 above. By an ingenious system "of ropes and pulleys he was 

 enabled to take advantage of the strong current of the river 

 to propel his hea\^ boat, in either direction, from side to side 

 without assistance ; and in this way, one by one, our tram oi 

 twenty wagons and thi-ee ambulances passed over in safety. 

 Three miles farther we crossed the Purgatoire, to join the 



