XXXII] CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 



183 



illustrated by the belt of Triassic sandstones of the Garden 

 of the Gods. 



We luxuriated here in plants which were altogether new 

 to me. By the side of the road up were great clumps of the 

 common Silene acaidis^ embedded in which were little tufts 

 of the exquisite blue Ornphalodes nana^ van aretioides, closely 

 allied to a rare alpine species. In damp, shady spots was a 

 curious alpine form of columbine {Aqidlegia brevistyld), while 

 minute saxifrages, potentillas, trifoliums, and many dwarf 

 composites starred the grassy slopes with beauty. In the 

 afternoon we crossed over a low pass and descended through 

 a precipitous forest into Grizzly Gulch, and then up to Mr. 

 West's house and laboratory, where he did a good deal of work 

 as an assayer of minerals for the numerous prospectors in the 

 district. In the boggy parts of the wood we found great 

 masses of the fine purple Primida Parry i. 



We spent Sunday with Mr. West and his son, who were 

 working a mine here in partnership with several other men, 

 and these invited us to dine with them. After a morning 

 among the flowers on the way up, we reached the mine 

 tunnelled into the face of the mountain. After going in a 

 few feet the whole surface of the tunnel becomes a mass of 

 ice-crystals as white as snow, showing that the mean tempera- 

 ture of the earth at a few feet deep is below the freezing- 

 point. This continues for a distance of about five hundred 

 feet, when the increase of temperature with depth becomes 

 just sufficient to prevent freezing, and with every twenty or 

 thirty yards further an increase of warmth is felt. We dined 

 with about a dozen men in a large, rough cabin with sleeping- 

 bunks all round. Our table and benches were of rough 

 planks, but they were covered with a clean table-cloth, and 

 our hosts gave us a most excellent dinner of soup, stew, 

 fruit, and cheese, with very good coffee. In these camps they 

 always get a good cook. 



In the afternoon we walked up the main gulch into a high, 

 upland valley, with Gray's Peak on our left. Here I found 

 Bryanthtis empetriformis, a pretty dwarf, heath-like plant 

 new to the flora of Colorado. The grassy slopes here were 



