bhoda.] GEOGRAPHY SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS. 461 



on a vein which Cut transversely across the ridge. As yet we had seen 

 none of the miners, but these boles, with accompanying notices writ- 

 ten on a stake, indicated their presence somewhere in the vicinity. We 

 soon ieacbed the summit of Handle's peak, and found it not near so 

 acute as most mountain-summits in this region. This peak is very 

 massive, with high bluffs on the east side, which continue along the east 

 ridge around to station 13. Between the two stations is a deep basin, 

 am phi theatrical in form. To the south and west the slopes are steep, but 

 not precipitous. 



To the west, and several thousand feet below us, we saw several little 

 lakes of a bright emerald-green color. We had no opportunity to make 

 any investigations as to the cause of the color, but from observations 

 later in the season we concluded it must be due to vegetation at the bot- 

 tom of the lakes. The white band already mentioned as appearing on 

 the east bluff was found to be composed of volcanic ash. Here, again, 

 we saw a band of sheep, but having left our guns at the mules we could 

 not shoot them. 



Early in the day we noticed the clouds hovering about the quartzite 

 peaks, as we had seen them so often before. Tbey never completely 

 veiled all the peaks of the group, but early each day began to circle 

 about them in a restless sort of a way, like so many mighty lions about 

 their lair. To us this apparent restlessness suggested a consciousness 

 of their terrific destructive power, which only awaited a mandate from 

 the u God of storms" to be set in motion. We even now held those 

 peaks in awe, as there seemed to be established somewhere in their 

 midsf a regular "manufactory of storms." Our subsequent experience 

 among them never completely obliterated this idea. About 1 o'clock 

 in the afternoon the clouds again came on, accompanied by hail and elec- 

 tric phenomena similar to that previously described. We could detect 

 the electricity in the air long before the clouds reached us by holding 

 our hands high in the air, when a faint clicking was audible. 



The phenomena were precisely similar to those experienced on station 

 12, but having reached the summit earlier in the present case, we were 

 able to leave before it became very dangerous. Just before leaving 

 the top I slung the strap of the tripod over my shoulder, and experi- 

 enced a sharp pain at the two points where the tripod touched me. 

 Otherwise the phenomena were much the same as on the previous sta- 

 tion. This peak is 13,997 feet above the sea, and 30 feet above station 

 12. After the hail and rain commenced, and fell incessantly till far into 

 the night. The following day we crossed the pass from the head of 

 Lake Fork to the Animas. The elevation of this pnss is 12,540 feet. 

 The ground up to that point is very boggy and the riding disagreeable. 

 The rise in the last mile of distance is more than 1,000 feet. How 

 the people of Saguache ever expect to bring a wagon-road up this 

 I canuot see. On account of the surrounding bluffs there is very little 

 opportunity to wind the road up it, while the miry nature of the soil 

 will require vast sums of money to be spent after the grade is obtained 

 before the road can be made passable. The fall from the pass down to 

 the Three Forks of the Animas is very sudden. Leaving the train to 

 proceed to Howard ville, wherever that might be, we climbed up a peak 

 on the north side of the trail. This poiut commands the headwaters 

 of the Animas, and is 13,675 feet in height. We succeeded in getting 

 a few of the most necessary details of the typography, but as we had 

 traveled a considerable distance since morning, it was late before we 

 reached the summit, and about the usual time the electric storms again 

 commenced. By this time the romance counected with these pheuom- 



