130 
haps toloss of timber, causing less absorption and a more rapid flowing 
off of rain-fall. The forests cause a greater rain-fall, and absorb and 
more evenly discharge the water supply. 
The snow-fall at Durango:is often 6 feet in depth, beginning about the 
Ist of December and lasting until the Ist of April. In the mountains 
the fall in 1882-83 was 45 feet, beginning on the 1st of October and 
lasting until the 1st of May. 
LARIMER COUNTY. 
(Area, 4,000 square miles; estimated forest area, 700 square miles. ) 
This county, lying immediately east of the main Rocky Mountain 
range, upon the northern border of the State, includes within its limits. 
North Park. Its surface is greatly varied, embracing plains, mountains, 
and valleys. From range lines 69 and 70, in the eastern part of the 
county, the country rises rapidly to the summit of the Medicine Bow 
range, thence falls to the center of North Park, and rises again to the 
crest of the main range or Continental Divide. The prominent stzeams 
are the Little Thompson, Big Thompson, Cache la Poudre, Big Laramie, 
and the North Fork of Platte River. | 
The heaviest timber in the county runs through the central part, coy- 
ering the Medicine Bow range and the northern and eastern slopes of the 
Continental Divide. Of the entire forest area about 300 square miles 
is fully stocked—good for timber, although the timber would not be 
considered first-class for commercial purposes, it ranging from saplings 
to trees 2 feet in diameter. White and Black Pine, White Spruce, and 
Hemlock are the predominant species. Cottonwood is found along the 
streams in the valleys, and Aspen in places on the mountain slopes. 
Forest fires and the consumption and waste for railway purposes are 
the greatest dangers threatening the forests. There is very little chance 
for renewal after the forests have been destroyed. It is stated that 60 
sections of forest land were burned over in the summer of 1886. 
LAS ANIMAS COUNTY. 
(Area, 6,509 square miles; estimated forest area, 500 square miles. ) 
This county, situated in the southeastern corner of the State, em- 
braces four distinct topographical regions, viz: 
First, the Park Plateau, which includes about 800 square miles in the 
extreme western part of the county, sloping from the Culebra Mount- 
ains eastward to Trinidad. Its elevation is 6,500 to 10,000 feet, and it 
consists of asloping plain, broken by numerous canyons into narrow and 
rocky ridges. 
Second, the Raton Hills, embracing a strip of basalt-covered Mesa, 
from 6 to 15 miles wide, and 120 miles long, extending along the south- 
ern boundary of the State, from Trinidad eastward. Elevation 6,000 
to 9,000 feet; area, 1,000 square miles. 

