1774 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 



able for settlement. Three fine ranches, well fenced, with good irrigating ditches, 

 appear, the lower close to the line of the reserve. The two latter are chiefly devoted 

 to cattle interests, each having about 500 head of stock. Upon the former were ob- 

 served 10 acres of fine wheat harvested, and upon the latter over 15 acres of hay. 

 Here, and below where the valley widens to 800 yards upon the reserve, are the best 

 agricultural points. 



This is, like the Pinos, in the great basin ; the timber growth of cottonwoodishere, 

 however, much more scant. Sage-brush covers the land reaching out from the imme- 

 diate banks ; the level is 6 to 12 feet below that of the general valley, and wood is 

 abundant. The hills upon either side have their steep slopes covered with pinon ; 

 their tops are chiefly clothed in sage and cacti, pinon, and scrub-oak also at intervals 

 appearing. Pebbles and stones, indicating action, are everywhere bestrown, showing 

 what vast areas were formerly submerged. The cattle of the settlers encroach upon 

 the Indian land, and good grazing patches in the bottom were few and far between. 



Within the reservation the valley spreads out to 1,800 and 2,000 yards of a fine agri- 

 cultural appearance with an alkaline tendency. Nearly all of this might be easily 

 irrigated. 



The mesas below this point advance and recede, limiting the area along the river 

 until the great barrier of the region is encountered. Here the valley per se is at an 

 end, the river being turned sharply to the west on meeting the huge Cretaceous sand- 

 stones. 



This massive mountain of the Upper Cretaceous series, if it may be so termed, rises 

 up almost vertically fully 1,200 to 1,500 feet. Upon eroded strata, on the gradual 

 accumulation of sufficient detritus, the pinon appeared, and between the lines the 

 yellow sandstone apparently rises in successive ridges, from which great blocks, de- 

 tached, have fallen to the water below. They clog the way and, between, the stream 

 winds slow and sluggish with difficulty on. 



The aspect here is barren in the extreme. Here and there a narrow ravine or dry 

 arroyo enters from the north, down which are well-worn trails of cattle ; high reeds 

 and bushes conceal the water's flow ; the rocks intrude so closely as to almost render 

 passage on the trail impossible, while the vegetation is that of the usual order, befit- 

 ting the general aridness. A few openings farther west and above its mouth are but 

 oases in a sterile place. 



RIO DE LAS ANIMAS. 



The Rio de las Animas signifies the River of the Souls, in which appellation occurs 

 the ellipsis of Perdidas ("lost"). 



While its signification is the "River of the Lost Souls," or Purgatory, it is neither 

 so mapped by geographers nor thus locally known, the Purgatory of Colorado being a 

 tributary of the Arkansas, in the southeastern part of the State. 



Of all the arable land on the river the sections in which agriculture has made any 

 notable progress may be known as the upper and lower. The upper part, where it 

 has received attention more extensively than any other portion of the San Juan, is 

 wholly included in that magnificent valley known as the Animas Park, the finest agri- 

 cultural section, as it is the loveliest park, in the San Juan. 



Except the Florida, the largest tributary of the Animas is Hermosa Creek, its name, 

 "beautiful," being not inaptly given. Eight and a half miles below, near the month 

 of Junction Creek, a town has sprung up on the right or west bank of the river, 

 called Animas City, not located upon any Wheeler or Hayden map, and therefore of 

 recent birth. Upon Hermosa Creek is the town of Hermosa, above which, about 4 

 miles, is a collection of cabins, located upon some of the maps as Animas City, now 

 deserted. In mentioning, therefore, the above name, reference is intended to the town 

 below, alive and in full existence, and not to the dead one above. 



The most attractive feature of the Animas Park is the appearance of the red sand- 

 stones noted previously on the Los Pinos and the Vallecito, at their union, and on the 

 Florida, but here more extensively exposed, for some distance appearing with a south- 

 ern dip and a thickness approaching 1,000 feet. 



These sandstones we presume pertain to the Triassic period, no reference to their 

 geological age and position having been anywhere seen. They appear within the 

 Animas Park, to the north of which along the river are exposures indicating the 

 pressure of large areas of the Carboniferous formations of the Coal-Measure period.* 

 The sandstones are of a brilliant brick red, at points aggregate perhaps a thousand 

 feet in thickness, and slope to the south, dipping to that horizon about 20°. Their 

 southern inclination and the character of the overlying sedimentary rocks appearing 

 to the south undoubtedly so refer them. On both the Florida and the Animas, sec- 

 tions of superposed strata carry us into the sandstones and beyond to the overlying 

 shales pertaining to the middle series of the Cretaceous period. 



* F. Hawn, geologist, Lieutenant Ruffner's Reconnaissance in the Ute Country, 1873, 

 p. 83. 



