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Show 118 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. is a beauty and charm about this canon that pleases, but never awes the beholder. The mountains are an unceasing wonder; none of them snow-clad, yet they mount high enough towards the sky to veil their heads in the clouds; they are not barren and repulsive, but clothed in green, with occasional cascades breaking over them, forming pictures restful and pleasing to the eye. While rolling dreamily along, a castle with turrets, battlements and quaint windows loomed up before me. I started and rubbed my eyes, thinking it possibly arose from the heat of an over-wrought imagination. But it was a real castle; we had reached Idaho Springs, and this was the dwelling of the Hon. Thos. B. Bryan. It is so situated as to command a view of the valley, with its picturesque brown-roofed houses and rustic bridges that span the stream. Back of it are great dome-shaped hills, covered with evergreens, and beyond tower lofty mountains. The hotels in this quiet little town, shut out from the world, were crowded with people, and many of them were there for a purpose, too, for they are racked with rheumatism and other ills, and just across the way are the famous " hot springs," which form, perhaps, the most important feature of this noted resort. The water issues from the ground boiling hot, and strongly suggestive of being sent up from the kitchen of Pluto. However, the temperature can be arranged to suit; "you pays your money and takes your choice," whether you will be parboiled or well done. About three miles above are the Chicago Lakes, where "The New West" tells us Bierstadt found the subject of his grand painting, "A Storm in the Rockies." Having |
