176 MY LIFE [Chap. 



Humboldt river, only reaching stratified rocks at the Hum- 

 boldt mountains, towards the source of the river, in the 

 evening ; and the next morning found ourselves near Ogden, 

 where I changed for the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, in 

 order to see a different portion of the mountains, two hundred 

 miles further south, and to visit Colorado Springs and the 

 celebrated Garden of the Gods. 



I left Ogden at lo a.m. July 14, passing Salt Lake City, 

 about fifty miles beyond which, near Provo, we entered a 

 fine gorge of the Wasatch Mountains, leading to an upland 

 valley with abundant vegetation. The cliffs were of a red 

 conglomerate with pebbles, and among the flowers I noticed 

 Cleome integrifolia^ yellow Oenotheras, handsome thistles, a 

 fine golden-rod, and red castillejas. When the train stopped 

 at small stations, for water or other causes, I would jump out 

 and gather any flowers I saw near me, keeping a sharp watch 

 for the conductor's cry of " All aboard ! " Having with me 

 Coulter's "Flora of the Rocky Mountains," I was able to 

 make out many of the species. Climbing up a high, open 

 valley, we reached Soldier Summit, where there was half a 

 mile of snow-sheds. This was the divide between the Salt 

 Lake and the Colorado basins, and we then entered Pleasant 

 Valley, and winding about came to the picturesque Castle 

 Gate, where a mass of rock like the ruins of a mediaeval 

 castle rises close to the line. Passing this, we entered an 

 almost desert region, with great bare flats of mud and clay, 

 with occasional low ridges of gravel. During the night in this 

 district we were stopped by a " wash out ; " a few hours' deluge 

 of rain having fallen, turned dry channels into roaring tor- 

 rents, and destroyed the track for some yards in several 

 places. These were rapidly repaired by building up the line 

 with sleepers laid across and across to the required level, and 

 at eight o'clock we went on again ; but were again stopped 

 early in the afternoon. Here I strolled about, but it was a 

 miserable desert, with only a few stunted, ugly spiny bushes. 

 Some of the cliffs around were splendid, in strata of red, 

 yellow, bluish, and green. This district is between the Green 

 and the Gunnison rivers, the latter a very turbid stream. 



