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Show 100 The Sierra | La Plata is not. properly speaking, a Sierra- a single range of serrated peaks- but is a group of peaks and moon tains gradually lessening in height to the southward, and from its highest peaks, which occupy the northern part of the area covered by the gronp, breaking rapidly down to the northwest to the level of the Dolores. The Rio La Plata heads in the northern portion of the group and flows west of south, bordered for 13 miles of its course on either side by peaks of the La Plata S - onp. The eastern side of this donble range is drained by tributaries of the Aoimas iver, the western slopes by the two minor forks of the Rio Los Manoos. To the northwest the water flows into the Dolores. The mountains are composed largely of sedimentary rocks in many places, altered by trap- dikes and igneous flows. This group is now attracting considerable attention from the extensive placer or auriferous bar at the gate- way of the Rio La Plata, and on account of the rich lodes of gold and silver ores lately discovered in them. The streams flowing from the La Plata Mountains are quite insignificant. The La Plata and Manoos are about 40 feet in width and perhaps a foot and a halt deep. Junction Creek is small, and the Hermosa, which has quite an extensive drainage- area, receives but little of its water from these mountains. It is, however, quite a large stream, equal in size to either the La Plata or Mancos. Of the valleyB of the streams flowing from the La Plata gronp those of the Mancos and La Plata only are important. On the Mancos, near the junction of the two forks, is, perhaps, 1£ square miles of arable land, extending down the borders of the streams and along the stream at intervals ; below are said to be good farm- sites. The La Plata, within the limits of the recent purchase from the Utes, is too high for certainly- successful agriculture, but below the boundary are several thousands of acres which, if the stream furnishes sufficient water, will produce good crops. The Utes now raise corn, squashes, and melons with success, and roots and grains would, DO doubt, successfully mature. Between the Manoos and La Plata are several small parks well grassed, and the hills are all covered with mountain grasses. Quite exteusive ranges for cattle can be found here. At present about four thousand head of sheep are grazed, with the permission of Ignacio and his baud of Utes, who, notwithstanding the purchase of lri73, still claim the land. The Mancos, a short distance below the junction of its forks, enters its cafion, cat through the Mesa Verde, a mesa several hundreds of square miles in extent, covered with wood, and much cut by cations; an Indian trail leads through the canon. The drainage- areas of Junction and Hermosa Creeks are worthless, unless coal of good quality exists in the rocks bordering the streams. There are no valleys or flats of any extent, but the entire area, particularly the drainage of Hermosa Creek, is ft mass of a small hills and canons with vertical walls of sandstone, a chopped up area of tangled cafions and worse- tangled fallen timber. Indians have made no trails through the Hermosa drainage- area, and whites have no occasion to. SOUTHERN KIM OF ANIMAS BASIN, ANIMAS RIVER AND PARK. The southern side of the rim of the Animas Basin is cut through by the Animas River, which escapes to the southward through a deep- cut gorge, which, though continuing as a close but not deep cafion below that point as far as to Old Animas City, 25 mile*) in air- line below its head, ends as a deep, formidable obstruction at the month of Cascade Creek, 15 miles below Baker's Park. This cafion, to my mind, for reasons which will be given hereafter, is a very important element in the problem of routes of communication outward from the extensive and prospectively valuable and rich mines of the Animas, Eureka, aud Uncoinpabgre miuing districts. It is avoided now as utterly impracticable, and, unfortunately, the heavy rains and snows of the month of September so mnch delayed the work of the party that we could not make a detailed examination and profile of the cafion, or even devote sufficient time to it to find out whether it is passable or not. Two stations were occupied along the western rim of the gorge, but the surface of the river below was not reached. From the foot of Baker's Park to the month of Cascade Creek the cafion is bordered by high peaks of quartzite, ( with the exception of the eruptive rocks at Sultan Mountain,) reaching in some cases over 5,000 feet above the stream, which inclose the river in a cafion narrow at bottom, but opening out at top until from the stream to the summits of the peaks bordering it are intervals of from 1 to 2£ miles, or the mean slopes of the cafion walls vary between twenty- five and forty- five degrees. Near the stream the slopes are more nearly vertical, and are ont through metamorphic rocks as hard as flint; Cascade Creek, near its mouth, flows in a similar cation, but not so deep. From the mouth of Cascade Creek to the head of the Animas Valley, about 11 miles, the Animas flows in a lesser cafion, cnt through the eastern edge of the floor of a valley About H miles wide, bordered on the east by a ridge gradually decreasing in altitude to the south, and on the west by a vertical ledge of red sandstone, which limits the drain- |
