PUMBAR'S creek — RED CHIMNEY FORK. 79 



"which we did for about four miles, and bivouacked for the night. 

 We continued down this valley until the middle of the following 

 day, when, instead of the broad open appearance which it had at 

 first presented, it soon began to contract, until it formed a canon, 

 with sides so steep that it was scarcely passable for mules. A 

 blind Indian-trail wound along the hillside, at an elevation of 

 several hundred feet above the stream, into which a single false 

 step of our mules would instantly have precipitated us. It re- 

 quired no small exertion of nerve to look down from this dizzy 

 height into the yawning gulf beneath. After following the canon 

 some ten miles, we came to a broad valley coming into it from the 

 left, which the guide declared headed in the ridge from which we 

 had descended yesterday, and to the eastward of the route we had 

 taken. As all prospect of a road by the valley of Pumbar's 

 Creek was now out of the question, I determined to follow up this 

 valley and ascertain whether a route could not be obtained in that 

 direction. This was accordingly done, and we found it to be as 

 the guide had stated. This branch of Pumbar's Creek, which we 

 called Red Chimney Fork, from the remarkable resemblance of 

 one of the projections of the cliffs to that object, we found to 

 have a very moderate descent from the ridge to its mouth, with 

 plenty of room for a road, requiring but little labour to render 

 it a good one. The timber is small and consists of oak, black- 

 jack, aspen, wild-cherry, service-berry, and box-elder of large size. 

 In many places it is quite abundant. 



On Pumbar's Creek, the hills were composed of strata of mar- 

 ble and metamorphic sandstone, inclined at an angle of 80° to the 

 north-east. Lower down, the horizontal strata were found lying 

 by the side of these inclined rocks. On Red Chimney Fork, the 

 strata were nearly horizontal, consisting principally of layers of 

 red sandstone conglomerate, formed from metamorphic rocks with 

 calcareous cement, and white sandstone with layers of conglo- 

 merate interposed. Near its junction with Pumbar's Creek, strata 

 of slaty shales occurred, cropping out at an angle of 70°. 



Below the Red Chimney Fork, the valley of Pumbar's Creek 

 opens sufficiently to allow the passage of a road through the bot- 

 tom ; but, as its course was leading us from our intended direc- 

 tion, we availed ourselves of a ravine, which, a mile below, comes 

 into it from the north-west, and followed this up to its head, thus 

 attaining the height of the general level of the country. The 

 ascent is quite regular, but the road would have to be made all 



