CHAPTER X. 



COLLECTING EVERGREENS IN THE ROCKIES. 



We do not wonder that President Roosevelt loves the moun- 

 tains and welcomes their rugged grandeur and prefers the 

 camp, with all Its wlldness to the comforts of the White House. 

 Often In Springtime, wearied with doing the work of two men 

 I have turned to the glorious Rockies for change and rest. Let 

 me describe one trip. We took the stage from Pueblo to 

 Beulah, a distance of twenty-eight miles. As we cross the 

 Intervening plains we have a magnlfloent view. Nature Is In 

 one of her coquettish moods, as If she was giving joyous wel- 

 come to her lover. Now she draws a screen of cloud from the 

 foothills to the highest crest, and the whole range is hidden 

 from view. Then the curtains are moved aside and we see 

 the projecting cliffs, the rooks, forests and mountain sides. 

 Then another shift is made and great gulfs and frowning preci- 

 pices appear. The curtains rise and fall again and then are 

 moved from side to side, when as If by magic, the mighty veil 

 Is lifted and rolled away, and the majestic range stands out 

 to view, crowned with old Baldy who rises almost 14,000 feet 

 Into the heavens. As we move nearer, the scene becomes much 

 more distinct and impressive. Now we pass Muldoon hill, where 

 Barnum's great Huldoon, the missing link, half ape and half 

 man, was found, which years ago created such a flurry In the 

 scientific world. The spot was well chosen. I have dug up fine 

 petrifactions on the same spot and right there the specimens 

 of Selenite, (crystallized gypsum.) I was digging for speci- 

 mens one day when a passing mountaineer called out, "What 

 are you doing there?" "Oh, just gathering fossils." "Well, 

 keep on, you may find some little Muldoons yet." As we near 

 the mountains, two great buttes rise from the plains like two 

 Immense gun-boats, one Is called Monitor and the other Mer- 

 rimac. Now the road winds around the brow of a cliff and we 

 descend into one of the most charming valleys on which the 

 sun ever shone. Here the changes of scenery seem well nigh 

 infinite. Tou have constantly new views of the mountains 

 with their crowns of forests and snow and the play of light 

 and shadow around the summits. 



I remember one day a cloud like an umbrella slowly set- 



