LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. 11 



On October 19, 1874, the party again reached Denver, after having 

 completed the work above specified. During the season, sixty-five 

 topographical stations were made and seventy-four camps. Of these 

 stations, eighteen were over 13,000 feet above sea-level. 



The photographic and naturalist's division was again under the 

 supervision of Mr. W. H. Jackson, the photographer, who has been 

 connected with the survey for the past five years in the same capacity. 

 The party organized in Denver, and took the field July 21. It com- 

 prised the photographer ; Mr. Anthony, his assistant ; Mr. E. Ingersoll, 

 naturalist ; and Mr. Frank Smart, assistant, with two packers and a 

 cook. 



Middle Park was first visited, as it had not been worked up the pre- 

 vious season. A series of beautiful and very characteristic views of the 

 peculiar features of the park were secured, including views about Grand 

 Lake, the Hot Springs, the Great Canon of the Grand, and the mag- 

 nificent mountain-forms and the charming vista as seen along the Blue 

 Eiver. From the head of the Blue, the party progressed southward, 

 via the Arkansas, Poncha, and Cochetopa Passes, to the Los Piuos 

 agency for the Ute Indians, where a series of views were secured 

 illustrating their life and peculiarities. The San Juan Mountains was 

 the next objective point. A camp was established in the upper end of 

 Baker's Park, in which was left all extra material in charge of two or 

 three of the men, and then, traveling with but few animals and very 

 light packs, rapid side-trips were made, into all the strongholds and 

 fastnesses of the grandest mountains in all Colorado. Panoramic views 

 from the tops of the highest peaks were secured, illustrating, by bird's- 

 eye views, the geology and topography of the whole mountain-system. 

 Especial attention has been paid, all the time, to make these views 

 instructive as well as pleasing to the eye, and the system of panoramic 

 views which has been carried out has been of very great assistance 

 to the topographers in working up their notes and expressing the 

 peculiarities of mountain-forms. To the geologist, also, they prove of 

 great value in recalling to the nr nd the surface-features, inclination of 

 strata, proportion of valley to mountain land and of timber to the rocky 

 summits lying above it. 



From the permanent camp in Baker's Park, a side-trip was made into 

 the southwestern corner of the Territory, in search of the picturesque 

 and interesting ruins of the habitations of a long-forgotten race. No 

 search wasmadeuntil the Rio Mancos was reached; but, from this poiut, 

 ruins without number covered the plateau and filled the valleys and 

 canons. Through the canons of the Bio Mancos, were found houses of 

 two stories in height, in the escarpment of the mesa, 800 to 1,000 feet 

 perpendicularly above the valley, of well-dressed sandstone, true in all 

 their angles, laid in a firm and tenacious mortar, and the inside 

 plastered and paneled in two colors. The greater majority of these 

 houses were smaller, but as perfectly built as the larger ones, and all 



