APPENDIX SS. 1765 



the winds from tlio mountains to the west alone relieved the terrible heat. For their 

 providential occurrence one is devoutly thankful. 



Three miles east of the La Jara the soil is of a gravelly, sandy nature, with clayey 

 constituents, the trend of the land being toward the stream, bordered by ranches or 

 farms, very productive in vegetation and crops. Here, as throughout the whole San 

 Luis Valley, the only trees are along the banks of the river, all streams being timber 

 fringed. 



The Alamosa and La Jara, during the lower parts of their courses upon the plain, run 

 side by side. At the foot-hills they diverge, the head of the Alamosa being tor the 

 northwest, its course throughout in a generally narrow and very deep canon, while 

 the upper waters of the La Jara are due west at but half as great a distance. All 

 the portions of the former that are available for agriculture are its banks on the plain 

 and a short part of its canon valley within the foot-hills, upon which Mexican ranches 

 are found. Upon the La Jara are a few more Americans than upon the former, the 

 r^nch-owners being mainly, however, of Mexican descent. A tributary, called by the 

 geographer its North Fork, but locally known as Aguas Calientes, or Hot Springs 

 Creek, where land is represented as adapted to grazing only, is found in reality to be 

 adapted to the agriculture of the Mexicans, ranches at intervals being passed along 

 its course. 



The entire course of the La Jara may be likened in its direction to a huge frying- 

 pan in outline, the long handle upon the plain extending to the Rio Grande, the basin 

 within the foot-hills to its source. Before reaching the plains the stream flows to the 

 south, east, and north, the latter part in a steep precipitous caiion strewn with basaltic 

 rock, which the road avoids. This road, built by the county over a natural route, is in 

 good order and affords the residents of the lower river easy access to its upper part, 

 which, as we ascend and pass over the intervening rolling foot-hills, we find within a 

 lovely valley, called by the Mexicans El Voile, to which they resort for hay. Its 

 headwaters in this region, represented as only timbered and barren, is largely the re- 

 verse. The volcanic rock strewn along, as we ascend the foot-hills well timbered with 

 piiion, we leave behind us as we descend into the valley, a basin eroded from the gen- 

 eral plateau by the waters of the stream, which has cut for itself, in its lower and 

 more rapid descent, a small but impassable canon. This valley is several miles long, 

 of a varying width of from three-fourths to one and a half miles, is a beautiful spot, 

 and bus been located upon by several persons for cattle-ranches. The grazing was 

 very fine, and so nearly level was the land, that the stream, here small and at its head- 

 waters, pursued a most tortuous course. Trout were found more abundantly than at 

 any other point. 



About 5 miles above our camp by the stream, rolling hillocks, as a divide, limit 

 the basin of the La Jara on the north, the mountains to the west, beyond which are 

 the waters of the Conejos, being over 1,000 feet ; to the east the hills are 400. Perhaps 

 a mile still farther to the north, in the center and bottom of another depression, is a 

 handsome lake, nearly rectangular in shape, 1,820 feet in length by 1,140 feet wide, a 

 clear and beautiful sheet of water, not indicated upon any of the maps. Fed by un- 

 derground streams or springs, no outlet is visible or could be found. The wind blow- 

 ing from the range to the west rolled the water in waves to the eastern shore, sug- 

 gestive of an incoming tide, while fragments of sedges blown in upon the banks, 

 bleached and white, gave the ground at a distance an alkaline appearance. To the 

 north the rising ground is the extreme limit of this plateau. Beyond lies the canon 

 of the Alamosa, of which at this point a magnificent view is obtained. The descent 

 of over 1,000 feet to the river below is very abrupt, and it was only after great diffi- 

 culty that it was reached, the general depth of the canon above being fully 2,000 feet 

 and as great at some points as 2,700 feet. 



No attempts at agriculture in the high valley of the La Jara have as yet been prac- 

 tically made by the settlers, whose small herds of stock were observed therein. 



The canon of the Alamosa, while containing some beautiful and high grassed parks 

 of no mean dimensions, is of a general height too great to permit any agriculture. 

 The largest was a lovely spot of nearly one hundred acres on a bench sloping from the 

 river to the mountain walls, containing magnificent pasture. Deserted cabins, near a 

 spring of the purest water, with mineral specimens in abundance told of the former 

 proprietors, who, disappointed in prospecting, had left the country. 



From the summit of hills east of the head of the La Jara was obtained a fine out- 

 look, showing the general plateau-character of the country to the south and east of the 

 continental divide, everywhere strewn with volcanic matter. 



The rugged peaks above timber-line to the southwest abruptly ended at the West 

 Fork of the Chama, the level to the south broken by the high timbered hills, and 

 farther east beside the Conejos, while above the plains to the southeast rose the rounded 

 sugar-loaf summit of San Antonio Mountain. Throughout this lower region, without 

 exception, streams have with difficulty worn their passage through the great lava- 

 flows, making all their beds calions, narrow and confined, the sides abrupt and steep, 

 and filled with sharp volcanic masses broken off from edges of the great flow. Agri- 



