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Show RECONNAISSANCE IN THE UTE COUNTRY. 25 at its maximum, which occurs between 8 and 10 p. in. About a quarter of a mile below the camp the stream enters a canon 150 feet deep, haviug vertical limestone walls just far enough apart to allow the water to pass. This " Box" Canon is about half a mile long aud very crooked, the creek wearing smooth rounded hollows under the cliff, as it passes from side to side. Considerable difficulty was experienced in fording this stream, which was done at 10 a. m., when the water was lowest. The animals were crossed singly, with lariats attached, and the more valuable packages were carried" by hand over a log bridge. From Camp 30 to Camp 31 the trail was in a beautiful valley all the way, but little timber on the trail, a few soft places presenting no great difficulty to pack-trains. From Camp 31 to 32 the trail was plain and easy. On the right, close to the trail, were limestone bluffs 200 to 300 feet high, being the eastern edge of a mesa or steppe which was overlooked by another similar bluff. The trail is on another mesa, sloping gently toward the east and ending at a low pine- covered limestone ridge, which separates the mesa from one below it of a similar shape, terminating at a ridge of extremely hard crystalline rock. At the foot of the mesa on which the trail runs, and close to the limestone ridge, are many small lakes. Near Camp 32 this mesa is about one mile wide aud gradually narrows, finally disappearing at the head of the park. Trail descended abruptly into the Animas bottom, which at Camp 32 is about one mile wide, one- quarter on the west and three- quarters on the east of the river, which here comes out of its canon, at this point only a low, rocky gorge through a throat of quartzite, which is about 30 feet above the water, 500 feet long and only from 15 to 30 feet wide, through which the water rushes with great depth and velocity. We descended on the march from Camp 31. to 32 over 2,000 feet, passing from spring to midsummer. I never had a more delightful morning ride. Birds sang in the trees, and flowers blossomed everywhere in the green glades and thickets. A short distance from Camp 31 we came to cottonwoods and large willows, and shrubs of oak, maple, cherry, service- berry, and some unknown varieties. The oaks gradually came to be about 25 feet high, none greater, and about three miles above Camp 31 we struck yellow pine of grand size and flrst- rate quality. There is much of this large yellow pine, not in forests but scattered over the mesa. We constantly passed thickets of roses in full bloom, and also found in flower cherry, service- berry, elder, flax, daisies, plums, sunflower, coreopsis, the common male fern, cacti, aud many others. Evidently the whole region, from two miles north of Cascade Creek to the head of the AuimasPark, is fertile and warm enough for valuable agriculture. Grass is everywhere luxuriant. Animas Park.- From Camp 32 to Camp 33 the trail is all the way in the Animas Park. The Animas Park is about 13 miles in length by an average width of a mile and a half, the greater portion on the western side of the river, and having its axis in a south- southwest and north-northeast direction, ending at its southern extremity in a sort of pouch, called by Mexicans the Eincon. The mountains at mouth of Upper Canon, where the river debouches, have sunk to foot- hills of 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the valley, sparsely timbered to summit. On the east of the peak the range continues all the way to the " old Spanish trail" at a height of about 2,000 feet above the valley, exposing the strata of a brilliaut red sandstone in many places. About the middle of the valley these strata are exposed from base to summit for a mile or more and are very beautiful. They slope to the |