178 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



From here we entered a series of high branching valleys, up 

 and round which we wound to ascend to Marshall Pass, the 

 summit level of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, at an 

 elevation of 10,850 feet. Stopping a few minutes on the summit, 

 I saw many fine flowers, among which was a pentstemon with 

 blossoms of a very dark vinous purple. The descent into the 

 Upper Arkansas valley was very interesting from the way we 

 entered and wound round the head of every lateral valley to 

 gain distance for the descent at a practicable slope, so that in 

 one place we could see three lines of the railway, one below 

 the other, which we had just passed along. Salida, where we 

 stayed to dine, is in a flat valley near the sources of the 

 Arkansas river, and on leaving it we soon entered upon a 

 very fine narrow valley with lofty mountains of conical or 

 pyramidal forms, either smooth or jagged. Then we came to 

 a granite district, with tors of strange and fantastic forms, 

 with huge blocks, peaks, and balanced rocks, like hundreds 

 of Dartmoor tors crowded together. Then more open rocky 

 valleys before we reached the " Royal Gorge," where we 

 beheld towering rocks of fantastic form and colouring closing 

 in upon the river and hardly leaving room for the railway. 

 In places there were vertical precipices about a thousand feet 

 high, side canons like narrow slits, or winding majestic ravines, 

 often with vertical walls, or with quartz dykes running up 

 the precipitous valley sides, and always the river roaring and 

 raging in a tumultuous flood close alongside of us. It was a 

 fine example of the canons of the Rocky Mountains, and of 

 the skill and enterprise required to build a railway through 

 such a country. But there are many other lines which 

 penetrate still wilder gorges, and which have overcome much 

 greater difficulties, and I greatly regret I could not afford the 

 time and cost of visiting these. As compared with Switzer- 

 land, the Rocky Mountains are very poor in snow-clad peaks 

 and high alpine scenery, but are quite equal, and perhaps 

 even superior, in the number, extent, and grandeur of its 

 canons or deep valley-gorges. 



On leaving this gorge the country became flat and 



