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Show RECONNAISSANCE IN THE UTE COUNTRY. 19 about fifty feet wide, two feet deep, and with a current of about eight or ten miles an hour. After the sun has caused the snow to melt ( at about 2 or 3 p. ra.) it is at its maximum, and is dangerous to ford at the most favorable fording- places, being up to the girths of a medium-sized mule, and perhaps seventy or eighty feet wide, with a very swift current. For about half a mile above its junction with the Animas its course is close to the foot- hills on the south side of Hamilton Park; above this its course is through a valley, nowhere more than a quarter of a mile wide, of steep, rounded foot- hills, having no flat bottom- land whatever for a distance of about three- quarters of a mile from Hamilton Park, but flowing between banks 50 to 100 feet high. Thence to the forks there is a narrow strip of very strong black soil bottom- land, in many places deep bog, and mostly covered with a dense growth of willows, through which it is very difficult to force a path. On the left bank the mountains as seen from the valley are precipitous, weatherworn cliffs of different formations, with slopes of debris extending to the river, a more minute account of which will be given by Professor Hawn. The hirst mountain on this side, leaving the park, appeared to be granite ; then, for a distance of a mile, trap and porphyry; beyond this, to about half a mile below the fork of the river, the appearance was unusual, a rich red, almost crimson- colored, quartzose, similar to the diamond- bearing strata of Central India. On the left bank the mountains were of a softer outline, sparsely timbered to their visible summits, whicht were generally from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above our trail. Our camp, No. 1, was situated about 1,000 feet above the forking of the river, and about half a mile below the bluff which split the valley. From Hamilton Park to this point we found a faint miners' trail, but above here the trail gave out. The north fork of Mineral Creek lies in the same general direction as the main river below the junction, and this was the one first examined. Almost immediately on leaving camp we entered dense and very heavy pine- timber, much larger than any yet seen by the expedition ; many trees had fallen, and their trunks lying in all directions over the boggy ground made progress slow and fatiguing. One tree was estimated by me to have a diameter of 38 or 40 inches, about a foot above the surface of the ground, and this was the largest that was seen. The timber ended at a point about a mile above the fork, and, while in it, little or nothing could be seen. On emerging we found ourselves on a very steep mountain- side, and at a height of about 300 feet above the river, which flowed through a V- shaped canon, formed by slides from each side. About two miles above this the valley opened out into a small bleak- looking park, in which were a few clumps of stunted pines. This park, which I named Iceland, wasxabout one- third of a mile wide and about half a mile long, of low, rolling divides between the numerous small streams that flowed from the mountaius on the north side. As the day was far advanced, and we had a rough journey back to camp, I went no farther up this branch. Between the timber and Iceland Park the valley was very narrow, the creek a mass ot foam at the bottom of the slide below our trail, the visible summits of the adjacent hills being about 1,000 feet above our trail on the south side, and about 800 on the north side. Immediately above the timber, on the north side, were high, precipitous cliffs, and it is to the shelter afforded by these that I attribute the thrifty growth of vegetation at this spot. The following day we ascended the south fork. The general appearance of the country was totally unlike that found on the north fork, or, indeed, of any of the streams flowing into the Animas which we have examined. From the |
