MEDICINE BOW EANGE. 95 



part of the slope of Mount Rlclithofen lying concealed beneath volcanic 

 lavas. The east side of the mountain forms the divide between the waters 

 that flow north and south. The main fork of Grand River, the great tribu- 

 tary from Colorado to the Colorado River, takes its rise on Mount Richthofen, 

 flows south along the depression between the two ranges, and drains through 

 the Middle Park. A branch of the Cache la Poudre also rises on the same 

 mountain, draining the east side of the range, and joins the main stream near 

 the bend. 



At Clark's Peak, the culminating point, the range widens rapidly, and 

 trends more decidedly to the northwest. The main crests form a high ridge, 

 with an abrupt slope, along the edge of the Park, but falling off on the 

 opposite side in a broken mountainous country. Here the longer and gen- 

 tler slopes are to the east, as in the Colorado Range, with the drainage con- 

 sequently mainly eastward toward the Laramie River. Near the line of the 

 forty-first parallel, where the range has a width of 25 miles, tw^o well- 

 defined ridges are developed, with a trend approximately parallel, which 

 changes the entire character of the range to the northward. The eastern 

 and lesser ridge borders the Laramie Plains ; a few miles above Bellevue 

 Peak it suffers an abrupt depression where the Little Laramie River leaves 

 the mountains, but it again rises, and continues unbroken for twenty miles, 

 until the entire Medicine Bow Range passes under the sedimentary beds. 

 The western ridge, which is less regular in outline, culminates in Medi- 

 cine Peak, a grand, broad central mass, at least 1,500 feet higher than the 

 surrounding summits. Between these two ridges lies an elevated plateau 

 country, nearly 10,000 feet above sea-level, gently undulating, but without 

 any marked topographical featm'es, covered with timber, and dotted over 

 with open glades and numerous alpine lakes. 



The Laramie River is the principal stream of the Medicine Bow Range ; 

 it has its source on Clark's Peak, in a small glacial lake at the foot of an 

 escarpment, from 1,200 to 1,500 feet below the summit; it runs northward 

 through the central portion of the mountains for .35 or 40 miles, and, finally 

 rounding the northern base of Sheep Mountain, runs out on to the Laramie 

 Plains. From the eastern slope, a considerable number of small streams 

 reach the plain; but all with the exception of Mill Creek, which joins the 



