466 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



dangerous like the preceding, is very disagreeable, from the bogs, fallen 

 timber, and rock-slides which beset one's way. Another is the Bear 

 Creek Pass, leading from the bead of Bear Creek to the head of the 

 San Miguel, on the west side of the mountains. Its elevation is 12,600 

 feet. On the east a long stretch of fallen timber in a bog, through 

 which the trail passes, makes travel very difficult. On the west a great 

 rock- slide, over which the trail leads, is scarcely less disagreeable. 

 Two passes lead over to the head of the Uncompahgre Biver, but, as 

 the box-canon of the latter bars all egress, they require no description 

 here. To the east of our present position are the two passes at present 

 mostly used by persons passing to and from the mines. The first, from 

 the head of Lake Fork to the head of the Animas, having an elevation 

 of 12,540 feet, has been already described. The other, the pass from 

 Cunningham Gulch to the Bio Grande, has an elevation of 12,900 feet 

 at the highest point of the trail. Over this has passed almost every- 

 thing that has been brought into the park. The trail is very steep, 

 and in the best weather is muddy, and after a rain it becomes perfectly 

 horrible. When it is remembered that the height of a great part of the 

 park is only 9,400 feet, it will be seen that the ascent from the valley 

 to each of the five passes at present used will be, in feet, as follows : 

 1,300, 2,200, 3,200, 3,140, and 2,690. Tbis gives some idea of the way 

 this little valley is isolated from the outside world. This, then, is the 

 far-famed park, named after that daring leader of his little band, who 

 lost his life within its bounds. This is the cul de sac into which he and 

 his men were mercilessly driven by the Indians in 1862. How many 

 fell in the massacre, how many starved or froze to death, seems even 

 yet to be veiled in mystery. But how the present survivors ever escaped 

 might well remain a mystery when we consider the great depth of 

 snow that must then have covered these high mountain -passes, and 

 that, at that date, the country was perfectly unknown. From our 

 station 16 only the lower end of the park, including Silverton, is visible. 

 The view of the mountains, however, is very extensive, all the high 

 peak stations made up to this time being plainly visible, except the 

 first one south of Los Pinos agency. Mount Sneffels stands out boldly, 

 about fifteen miles to the northwest of us, while about an equal distance 

 to the east of us appears the high peak, called, from its shape and loca- 

 tion, the Bio Grande Pyramid. Just a little east of south the quartzite 

 peaks again stood out in their peculiar ruggedness. From this point 

 we also had a good view of Arastra Gulch. Its upper end is a rocky 

 amphitheater, between 12,000 and 13,000 feet in elevation. In its center 

 was a little lake. At the lower end of the amphitheater there is a very 

 abrupt fall of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet down to the bed of the creek. 



Having reached the summit of this peak unusually early, we had 

 plenty of time to study the topography carefully. Just as we were fin- 

 ishing up the w r ork of the station, and had commenced building a small 

 monument out of the few stones in the vicinity, the well-known tickling 

 sensation about the roots of our hair again commenced, and we could 

 see its cause in the shape of a heavy rain-cloud which was slowly drift- 

 ing up the canon. We could see long dark streaks extending from the 

 cloud to the valley below, indicating heavy rain. All rain-storms in 

 this country, when seen from a distance, present this appearance. A 

 continuous mist-like connection extends from the cloud to the earth, 

 but through this are streaks much blacker than the rest. To a person 

 unacquainted with those storms, these streaks would appear as bands 

 of vapor, a little thicker than the rest. In truth, however, the part that 

 seems like thin mist is heavy rain, while the black streaks are almost 



