NOTES ON AN AMERICAN TOUR. 
179 
The La Yeta Pass through, one range of the Rocky 
Mountains is a remarkable work with long sharp curves, that 
double on themselves in the zigzag ascent up the steep side 
of the valley, and pass so near in each course that a stone 
could almost be thrown from one to another of three trains 
on lines one above another, and more than four miles of line 
are run over to make an advance of only half a mile. There 
is a continuous ascent of fourteen miles at a gradient gener¬ 
ally as steep as one in twenty-five, and then a similar descent 
of as great length on the other side of the pass. This rail¬ 
way through the Rocky Mountain district is the narrow 
gauge of three feet. 
Manitou, a valley in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, 
is a favourite place for visiting from all parts of the States, 
and was stayed at for several days; it is at the foot of Pikes 
Peak, and is itself (3,000 feet above the sea, and the grand 
Pikes Peak towering above with its lovely snow cap, at 
14,000 feet height (within 1,000 feet of the height of Mont 
Blanc). In the neighbourhood of Manitou are the Garden 
of the Gods and Monument Park, two very interesting and 
remarkable collections of strange fantastic rocks that are 
quite fascinating from their extraordinary forms and pictu¬ 
resque variety of colour, and of great extent. These rocks 
are sandstone of different degrees of hardness, and varying 
in colour from light grey to dark red ; the caps are portions 
of a harder stratum above the softer one below, which has 
consequently worn away faster, but the difference in hardness 
is only little, and both are in a friable condition. There are 
also in the Garden of the Gods great irregular masses of 
sandstone rock, standing up on edge, and reaching to more 
than 300 feet height. 
The ascent of Pikes Peak from Manitou was a grand 
adventure, taking eleven hours, and gave charming views of 
the other distant snow peaks of the Rocky Mountains, and 
the immense extent of distant plains; and the view, on 
descending in the evening sunlight, of the strange picturesque 
rocks in the Garden of the Gods at the foot of the mountain 
was most fascinating, from the brilliant colours shown by the 
different rocks in the bright sunshine. There was a complete 
garden of flowers extending through the valley and far up 
the mountain. 
Pueblo was then visited, an old Mexican town at about 
the latitude of Algiers, giving a very interesting and pictu¬ 
resque effect in the brilliant sunshine. Many of the houses 
are built of sun-dried bricks made of mud and straw, called 
“ adobes,” which is the native building material. Adobe 
