422 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



mainly with sage, but, if irrigated, might prove productive. The soil, 

 however, contains some alkali, g creek has a broad and fertile bottom. 

 Between these two valleys, the country consists of rolling hills, covered 

 with excellent grass. 



From the mouth of h creek to its mouth, the Eagle Kiver is in close 

 canon, and the junction of the rivers is in this canon, which extends down 

 the Grand to the mouth of Eoaring Fork, with little intervals of valley. 

 Its height is greatest fifteen miles below the mouth of the Eagle Eiver, 

 where it reaches 9,400 feet. This canon is cut in a rolling table-land, of 

 an average elevation of 9,000 feet, which separates the water of Eagle 

 Kiver from that flowing into Eoaring Fork. It is well watered, sparsely 

 timbered with quaking aspen, with plenty of excellent grass. It is too 

 exposed and the elevation is too great for a winter range for stock, but 

 for a summer range it is excellent. 



The divide between the waters of the Eagle and Grand Eivers on the 

 north, and Frying Pan Creek on the south, consists of a broad, flat- 

 topped ridge, whose summit is slightly above timber-line. It joins the 

 Sawatch range near the Mountain of the Holy Cross. Thence it has a 

 course nearly west to Eoaring Fork. 



Eoaring Fork takes all of the Grand Eiver drainage on the northern 

 slopes of the Elk Mountains, and the western slopes of the Sawatch 

 range, north of the Elk divide. Its branches, without an exception of 

 any consequence, head among the high peaks above the limits of tim- 

 ber, and most of them have their entire courses in the mountains. The 

 lower course of Eoaring Fork, that is, below the mouth of Castle Creek, 

 is in a valley gradually increasing in width till it reaches its greatest 

 width at the mouth of Eock Creek, where it is fully four miles wide. 

 The bottom-land, as almost everywhere in the Territory, is excellent, 

 and is unusually broad, but liable to sudden overflows from the melting 

 of snows in the mountains. 



Grand Eiver, below the mouth of Eoaring Fork, is in a narrow val- 

 ley, with very high hills on each side, (rising abruptly,) for about three 

 miles. Then it enters a close canon, in which it is for twelve miles, 

 when it issues from this canon into a broad valley, east of the North 

 Mam plateau, as I call the portion of plateau between Plateau Creek 

 and the Grand Eiver. The country south of this canon of the Grand, 

 and west of Eoariug Fork, consists of high, rolling hills, covered with 

 a heavy growth of cottonwoods. The elevation of summits in this 

 mass of hills exceeds 10,000 feet. 



The broad valley, alluded to above, extends down the Grand to the 

 North Mam plateau, north of the river to a considerable distance, and 

 south of it ten miles, speaking generally. Within this valley the Graud 

 receives three branches of considerable size. The largest of these, 

 which I have named Divide Creek, comes into the Grand just west of 

 station 22. 



The principal, almost the sole, production of this valley is sage. There 

 is no grass, except in the stream bottoms. The soil is extremely poor. 

 The hills farther south, which rise to the Gunnison and Grand divide, 

 are covered densely with scrub-oak and smaller bushes, with some quak- 

 ing aspen. 



In passing the North Mam plateau and the Plateau range, the valley 

 of the Grand is very much contracted, averaging not more than five 

 miles in width. In this part of its course, the river is very sluggish and 

 winding, with numerous bayous and islands. 



Opposite the North Mam "plateau, on the north side of the river, the 

 country consists of a rolling plateau, extending as far to the north and 



