462 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



ena had all disappeared ; and at tbis time and thereafter, whenever 

 onr hair began to fry, we geuerallj^ disappeared at pretty short notice. 

 We never waited again so long as we had done on station 12. As we 

 were working on the peak, peculiar sounds reached our ears from the 

 depths of the Animas Caijon, 2,500 feet below. They resembled very 

 much the whistle of a locomotive when heard from a great distance. 

 By listening carefully and looking through our glasses, we formed a 

 shrewd surmise that this strange sound Vv'as the last indrawn note of the 

 plaintive bray of the jackasses nsed by the miners in bringing the ore 

 down from the mines. The harsh lower notes had all been dissipated 

 before they reached us, leaving nothing but the refined essence of the 

 sound behind. We considered this as a conclusive evidence of the pres- 

 ence of white men, and immediately descended to our mules. The trail 

 down to the Animas was quite steep, notwithstanding it wound around 

 a great deal. For the last part of the distance the fall was very sudden 

 down to the Three Forks. The total fall from the pass is 1,400 feet 

 in two miles. At what is called the Three Forks, or the junction of the 

 three creeks which form the head of the Animas, we found several cabins 

 with a number of miners about, who kindly showed ns specimens of ore 

 from their various mines. As Dr. Endlich will give a detailed description 

 of the mines, I will refer the reader to his accompanying report. A 

 very short distance below the forks, the great bluffs of the Animas 

 Caiion commence, at first more or less broken up by slides and by gorges 

 formed by streams from the mountains. A little while after leaving the 

 forks the trail crosses the Animas, and follows across the great rock- 

 slides which come down to the water's edge on the east side of the 

 stream. These extend many hundred feet above the trail, and are ter^ 

 minated above by a series of high bluffs, one receding behind the otheF 

 and separated usually by small debris slides, similar to the great one 

 below; sometimes very steep grassy slopes form the connection between 

 the bluffs. Above all, a long slope, more or less steep, connects the last 

 and highest with the mountain-peaks above, which are from 3,000 to 4,000 

 feet above the stream-bed, but seldom ever visible from the trail, as the 

 uear precipices cut off the view. The bluffs on the west side are for 

 a long distance much less broken than ou the east, and instead of having 

 slopes at their bases, rise abrut)tly from the bed of the caiion, in many 

 places a thousand feet, nearly vertical. But the series of pei-fectly inac- 

 cessible bluffs often rise from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the stream, and 

 are connected with the mountain-peaks by steep grassy or rocky slopes. 

 Ju some places the bluffs form the abrupt termination of what from 

 above are seen to be sharp, rocky ridges, leading down from the peaks. 

 In the upper end of the caiion the only gorge cut through the western 

 wall is that of Eureka Gulch. Near its junction with the Animas this 

 is very narrow, but a short distance back it widens onl into a considera- 

 ble basin. A very interesting thing in connection with these bluffs is 

 the fact that many little streams run over the top and reach the bed of 

 the caiion by a succession of little falls. These give a picturesque appear- 

 ance to these otherwise bare bluffs. Still more important is their bear- 

 ing on questions connected with the working of the mines. A fall of 

 from 1,000 to 2,000 feet could be easily obtained. It can scarcely be 

 doubted that there is a never-failing hydraulic power contained in these 

 little streams sufficient to xvork all the machinery that can ever be 

 brought into these mines. All that is required is to apply it properly. 

 In making this general assertion, I do not refer simply to those streams 

 which fall over the bluffs of the mam canon of the Animas, for it must 

 be remembered that, up Cunningham, Arastra, and other gulches, there 



