X...VTVF1 GEOLOGY TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 89 



the mountain-front in only seven points, while uniting still further in 

 the plains, but four principal streams reach the Platte. 



This is not including the many streams- which rise in the mountains 

 east of the crest, some of which unite with the main streams, while 

 others break in minor canons from the mountains ; while still others rise 

 independently in the plains, forming subordinate branches of the Platte. 

 Of the first class — these rising at the main crest — may be enumerated, 

 commencing at the north. The Big Thompson, North, Middle, and South 

 Saint Vraius, Jim Creek, IrJ'orth, Middle, and South Eoalder Creeks, 

 JSTorth Clear Creek, Fall Eiver, l^^orth and South Forks of South Clear 

 Creekj Chicago Creek, and Bear Eiver. Of the minor mountain-streams, 

 those rising east of the crest, there are, likewise commencing at the 

 north, the Little Thompson, Left-Hand Creek, Four-Mile Creek, Coal 

 Creek, Ealston Creek, and Turkey Creek. Those that issue from the 

 mountains are as follows: The Big Thompson, Little Thompson, the 

 united Saint Vraius, the united Jim and Left-Hand Creeks, united Four- 

 Mile and iS^orth and Middle Boulder, the South Boulder, Coal Creek, 

 Ealston Creek, the united Clear and Chicago Creeks, Bear and Turkey 

 Creeks ; while the united Thompsons, the united Saint Vraius and Boul- 

 ders, the united Ealston and Clear Creeks, and the united Bear and Tur- 

 key Creeks, or only four in all, join the Platte. 



The tendency of these cross-cutting streams is to throw this eastern 

 mountain-area into east and west ridges. These ridges, however, are 

 seldom sharp, but massive, and rather thai, striking one as a system of 

 ridges it impresses one as a system of deep-cut river-channels. Large, 

 flat, park-like areas are numerous. In the northern two-thirds of this 

 area, approximately parallel with and a few miles east of the first great 

 slopes of the divide, is an irregular zone but little intersected with, 

 caiions, and these not deep, and varying in altitude from 8,500 feet to 

 9,000 feet. It is a park region of rolling pine-sprinkled surfaces, with 

 the high spurs rising on the west, and the mouths of the deep gorges 

 which extend back to the range opening oufc upon it. In going east, as 

 the carious cut deeper and deeper, the spurs perhaps not changing 

 greatly in altitude, traveling north and south becomes almost impossi- 

 ble. Throughout this region, however, except Lilly Mountain, just east 

 of Long's Peak, and Ealston Butte, between Ealston Creek and the 

 South Boulder, there is a remarkable uniformity in the height of these 

 ridges. Their tops are frequently quite level or gentl^^ rounded; while 

 standing on one, the general level, which seems indicated in their tops, 

 is very striking. South of Clear Creek, in approaching the Evans 

 Eidge, this general summit level is more irregular, the Squaw Chief 

 and Bergen Park Mountain rising to exceptional heights ', yet, even here, 

 large areas are frequently undulating or level, forming beautiful park- 

 like regions ; here usually occupied as farms or for pasturage. As 

 viewed from the plains this general evenness of the tops of the "foot- 

 hills" is very striking. The majority of these ridges rise somewhat 

 above 8,000 feet, while the plains along the eastern base of the moun- 

 tains average not far from 5,600 or 6,000 feet. A few points along the 

 face of the mountains rise higher than the country immediately in their 

 rear, such as South Boulder and Golden Peaks, and Bear Creek, which 

 stand close to the mountain edge. 



But as a whole the mountain-zone lying between the main divide aLd 

 the plains certainly impresses one as being, with a few exceptions, a 

 region of very uniform or gently undulating general elevation, carved 

 by the powers of erosion, jierhaps j^artly glacial but mostly by streams, 

 into a mountain area of which portions are exceedingly rugged. 



