454 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



been very fine, but from this time till fall, rain commenced early every 

 afternoon, and continued into the night. Moving up Godwin Creek, 

 Dr. Endlich made a special examination of some of the highly-colored 

 peaks already mentioned, while Wilson and I rode up to the head of the 

 caiiou and out upou a high aud pretty extensive plateau, which extends 

 fro in a high, sharp pinnacle a few miles west of Uncompahgre Peak 

 around the heads of Godwin Creek and Lake Fork to the head of the 

 Animas. It forms the divide between these three streams and the Un- 

 compahgre River. An area of fifteen or twenty square miles is above 

 the timber-line. Ten or fifteen square miles have an elevation of over 

 12,000 feet. The timber line here ranges from 11,500 to 11,900 feet 

 above the sea. This whole area is covered with a very short growth of 

 grass, which is almost entirely unfit for feed for animals. This is com- 

 mon with all the grass growing high up on the mountains; it is not nu- 

 tritious. Unlike the plateau east of Lake Fork, this is not surrounded 

 by bluffs. Instead of being smooth aud nearly level, like the former, it 

 is rolling and cut up by gulches. The slopes down to the surrounding 

 streams are steep, but bluffs are very rare, The ground is not very 

 rocky, but like all the soil at this elevation, is very damp and boggy. A 

 number of small lakes are dotted here and there over it, and in many 

 places springs of ice-cold water gush out from the rocky prominences, 

 fed by the banks of eternal snow which are scattered about in consider- 

 able numbers. In crossing this elevated region a strong west wind was 

 blowing, and, the temperature being below the freezing-point, riding was 

 very disagreeable both for our beasts and ourselves. Under these cir- 

 cumstances we were not so observaut as we should otherwise have been. 

 Still, there were so many new and interesting things about us that we 

 could not fail to notice some of them. 



The eastern half of the plateau drains out through a canon leading 

 northward and westward into the Uncompahgre River. We crossed its 

 head on our tramp, and noticed that it fell very suddenly, till within 

 about two miles of us it became a deep, narrow canon, at which point 

 the stream turned abruptly to the west. From this fact we were ena- 

 bled to get a good broadside view of the north bluff of the canon, and 

 we saw it weathered out most curiously, being worn into almost all con- 

 ceivable fantastic shapes, the general appearance being that of a great 

 wall covered with niches and statuary. Time would not permit us to 

 go closer and make a more careful examination ; so we had to content 

 ourselves with a distant view. From the headwaters of this creek we 

 crossed a divide running laterally across the plateau, and for some dis- 

 tance the drainage was into Godwin Creek, until, near the peak upou 

 which we made our station, the water again flowed to the north. From 

 station 10 the canon of the Uncompahgre River appeared in all its rug- 

 gedness. From here we got a fine view of Mount Sneffels and its sur- 

 roundings. We could see no possibility of ascending the peak from the 

 east side, as it was cut up by rugged canons and innumerable bluffs aud 

 pinnacles ; these latter ornamenting all the ridges leading down from 

 the great peak and its near neighbors. 



In some places numbers of the pinnacles massed behind one another 

 presented the appearance of church-spires, only built after a much grand- 

 er style of architecture than most of our modern religious edifices. In 

 some places two systems of vertical pillars were separated by a narrow 

 strip of horizontal lava -flow, and served to heighten the fantastic appear- 

 ance of the rock-forms. The fact that we stood on a peak four or five 

 miles distant from the scene described, will give some idea of the great 

 size of these pinnacle forms. A mouth later we had another much nearer 



