110 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE. 
I started from Francis on the Ward Line, or Colorado & Northwestern 
Railway, at 6:20 A. M., ascended Mt. Baldy by the old trail some distance to 
the deep snow among the green timbers where both white and red spruce 
thickly covered the ground. The south and west slopes where the timber 
has been cut away, and in places where fires have devastated the timber, all is 
bare, only stumps and dead logs remaining. There is no snow on their slopes. 
It has already been melted and has flooded the lower country. The effects 
are seen all over the valley. On the north and east slopes there is consider- 
able timber, spruce and aspen, the solidly packed snow, the fall of ten to 
twenty feet, having been compressed into four or five feet. It is firm to walk 
over. “2 spruce here rises to about 11,000 feet, and on the north slope is 
in placzz quite plentiful. 
Upon the divide along the east arm of Baldy, at 11,500 feet elevation, is 
seen the fearful effect of wintry winds. The spruce and aspen are bent with 
the winds to the southward, lying along the surface of the mountain only five 
or six feet high, but often forty-feet length of tree, the roots in many places 
being pulled out of the rock fastenings by the wind. The trees are arranged: 
in open rows with open space between, like parallel hedge rows. We reach 
the summit of the divide near a deserted miner’s cabin. Numerous monu- 
ments occur where mineral locations have been made. 
Baldy proper is a round-top, elevated mass, with arms to east and west, 
and is connected with the Continental Divide at the Arapahoe peaks. Numer- 
ous lakes and streams in the valleys nearby come into view from this elevated 
point. The top of the mountain is now (June 3) bare; except for occasional 
patches of snow. The elevation is 12,150 feet. Far to the south Pike’s Peak 
is seen, and nearby, only three to four miles distant, is the Continental Divide, 
its peaks all snowcapped. 
I continued a mile farther west to the foremost elevation of Baldy, where 
half a dozen piles of stones mark the visit of tourists. Here I took many 
photographs, some of which we reproduce. To the west are the Arapahoe 
Peaks, but I see no glacier indications. They are not more than three miles 
distant by section lines and surveys, and any glacial appearance should be 
clearly seen from this distance. To the right is Bald Mountain, 11,493 feet, 
and to the north Audubon Peak, 13.173 feet elevation, Saint Vrain Creek and 
lake, or reservoir, being directly at my feet, while the black appearance of the 
dark spruce shows a fine body of timber. Very much green young timber 
