74 EXPLORING EXPEDITION FROM SANTA KK 



* * * As we approached RitQ BlaDCO we entered a narrow ravine or canon 

 cut in the Upper Cretaceous rocks — yellow sandstones and gray shales — which rapidly 



deepens till, at its junction with the Kito, its bounding hills have an altitude of a 

 least 1,000 feet. 



"This canon is very picturesque; the sides covered with yellow pine, Douglas' 



and Menzies' spruces, the latter now tor the first time seen in New Mexico. It grows 

 here very beautifully*., somewhat more spreading 1 than in Oregon, the foliage very 



dense and silvered. Among the evergreens are slopes on which grow thickets of wild 



cherry, serviceberry,- and gooseberry, all now in fruit. In the bottom are bushes of 



black cm-rant, also fruiting, all these berries are called manzintias — litth; apples — by 



the .Mexicans, hut the serviceberrv is particularly distinguished by this name by those 

 who would he exact. The California manzinita has better claim to the name, and is a 

 very different plant. The clitfs of liito Blanco are frequently precipitous, but so 

 widely separated as to leave a pretty valley between. They are wildly composed of 



Cretaceous strata, mainly of the middle division, with a capping of the yellow sand- 

 stones and marls of the upper member of the formation." 



Pygosa, July 2& — " Left Kito Blanco early this morning, passing through a 

 country similar to that of yesterday. At !) o'clock, came down a pretty ravine to the 

 San Juan, here 30 yards wide, 3 feet deep, very rapid. At this point it, enters a 

 canon, rut in the Upper Cretaceous sandstone, which has a Strong local dip toward the 

 north. Above this canon is a delightful valley, running up to the foot-hills of the San 

 Juan Mountains, which are here very beautiful in form, and lofty, as patches of snow 

 are visible upon them. The river San Juan here issues from the narrow valley 

 between the Sierra San Juan and Sierra del Navajo, where it takes its rise, and this is 

 apparently the first interval of level land through which it Hows. In the upper part 

 of this valley is the Pagosa, one of the most remarkable hot springs on the continent, 

 well known, even famous, among the Indian tribes, but, up to the time of our visit, 

 never having been seen by the whites. It can hardly be doubted that in future years 

 it will become a celebrated place of resort, both for those who shall reside in the sur- 

 rounding country, and for wonder-hunting health-seeking travelers from other lands. 

 There is scarcely a more beautiful place on the lace of the earth. The valley ifi 

 three miles long by one broad; a verdant meadow of the finest t i>rass, thickly 

 strewed with flowers, through which winds the bright and rapid river, margined by 

 (dumps of willows, and most graceful groups of cotton-wood. On every side are hills 



covered with gigantic pines or the slender Oregon spruces, and on the north, far above 



these, rise the forest-clad slopes and craggy crests of two great Sierras. The PagOSti 



is nt the edge of this prairie. As the river leaves the greal wooded gorge embraced 



between the San Juan and Navajo Mountains, ami comes out into this beautiful 

 amphitheater, it sweeps round in a curve, inclosing some 'JO acres. From all parts 

 of this space, which is evenly turfed over, the surface rises very gently to the center. 

 Here is a- great basin, oval in form, 40 by 50 feet in diameter, its walls of white rock, 

 of unfathomable depth, in which the deep-blue water seethes and surges as in a boil- 

 ing caldron, giving off a column of vapor which in damp weather is visible for miles. 

 The water, though hot, is not at, the boiling-point, and the ebullition is produced 1)}' 



