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Show 46 valley with grand palisades of sandstone and limestones, which have been washed into many fantastic shapes. Game was exceedingly plentiful, and the bears so purposely deliberate in their attempts to avoid us as to bear testimony to the infrequency of these disturbances. I passed by two deserted cabins labeled " The Dolores Mines," whioh it appeared had been left the 1st of August, and where a much- neglected garden showed the capacity of the soil. On the same day I passed a cluster of small lakes of bubbling water, raised on one bank above the level of the river, and showing symptoms of the presence of sulphur. I left the river and climbed the mesas on the south side, near the great bend of the Dolores, which had here reached such dimensions that we forded it with difficulty. Striking west, we marched through forests of immense pine, which gradually sunk into pifion and juniper, and finally into scrub- oak, and a thick undergrowth of Spanish bayonet. Crossing Macomb's trail, the country became more and more open as we descended into the immense basin before us. Pottery was everywhere scattered over the ground, and at intervals traces of ruins appeared, the first I had seen. A curious one I examined at the lowest point of this basin, in a gulch, where, for the last time till I struck the Man cos, I found water in pockets. The ruins were located under an overhanging cliff of sandstone, and consisted of a number of cells made of rough stone masonry, formed against the side of the- cliff like a cluster of swallows' nests. Later, at the foot of Darling's Peak, much more extensive ones were found, with well-built walls standing 8 or 10 feet high, and the outlines of an estnfa. For three days we marched through this country before reaching the MancoB with neither water, wood, nor grass; even sage- brush and Boap- weed occurred but in occasional patches. The country was perfectly sterile, but wonderfully picturesque. On the east the mesa-benches were crowned with vertical walls, from 300 to 500 feet high, the appearance of immense battlements, flanked and guarded by towers. On the west rose Late Mountains, and far away toward the south loomed up The Needles from beyond the San Juan. Moving down the Man cos, at intervals of every few miles I passed ruined towers, many of them quite well preserved, circular in shape, with a diameter of not more than fifteen feet. They were on each side of the river, and it seems peculiar, as if they were intended for watch- towers that never were placed in any commanding sites, the mesas rising in terraces behind them affording far better positions. At the month of the river, on the north side of San Juan, illy- preserved but extensive ruins were found, both on the mesas and at the foot of the cliffs near the river-banks. Having lost one of the animals, the condition of the remainder forced us to give up our intention of proceeding fartherj so, leaving the river, we climbed the mesa and made a forced march to the point on Gothic Creek selected for rendezvous. Finding no water the next morning, we moved east, meeting the rest of the party on the march, and with them returned to the San Juan, and encamped opposite the mouth of the Mancos. Leaving there October 30,1 followed the river on the south side to the head of the Governors Gallon, past the Lagunas de las Piedras, and reached Tierra Amarilla November 9. Through much snow I then crossed the mountains by the trail from the south fork of the Chama, passed through Conejos, and, following the Conejos and Tunoheras rivers, reached: Fort Garland in a heavy snow- storm on November 19. Finding instructions there to proceed to Pueblo with the least possible delay, we crossed the mountains by the Sangre de Cristo Pass and reached Pueblo November 24. I wish here to bear testimony to a cheerful performance of duty by every member of my party under circumstances of unusual exposure and privation, and to thank them for the courtesy which they at all times displayed. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. W. WHIPPLE, Second Lieut. Third Artillery, Lieut. GEO. M. WHEELER, Corps of Engineers. |