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Show 8 RECONNAISSANCE IN THE UTE COUNTRY. mounted, eighteen miles was not particularly hard work. Sextant observations were obtained at Camps 2 and 4 for latitude by Polaris off the meridian, and for time by stars east and west of the meridian. Clouds prevented observations at other camps, except at ~ No. 5, near the summit, where timber and mountains made observations difficult, and the very fatigue made a small obstacle great. The latitude of Fort Garland was determined by eighteen observations of Polaris off the meridian May 14th and 15th, and thirteen similar observations on July 31st. The mean of these observations was 37° 23' 17". 33, and the range from the least siugle result to the greatest was ° 0, 01' 25". 3, giving probable error of single result 14//. 64, and of mean of twenty- five results = 02". 93. General description of country. Pueblo is situated on the Arkansas, a stream at this point 100 feet wide and 2 feet deep, with a strong current. On either hand is a high, broken mesa country, stretching away south and west to the foot- hills of the Sangre de Cristo Range, and on the north to those of the great divide of the waters of the Platte and Arkansas, of which Pike's Peak is the easternmost peak of considerable height. Due west from Pueblo the summit of the Greenhorn Speer is from 35 to 40 miles distant. Here it is a rugged range about 3,000 feet above the Arkansas Yalley, and at this season showing much snow. It was impossible to estimate here the N. E. limit of the foot- hills. From this point to its end at Badito the range has a general trend S. S. E. and our S. W. course converged rapidly with the mountains, country becomes more and more broken, and the terrain changes accordingly from flat prairie, sloping gently toward the Arkansas, to mesas cut by deep waterways, ( the Mexican " arroyas,") and presenting bluffs of considerable height, and finally to rolling foot- hills. From Pueblo to the vicinity of the Saint Charles, about 10.7 miles, is a flat prairie without trees or water, with their gravelly soil supporting little vegetation, and that little being mostly small each and sage- brush. The Saint Charles, at crossing, is about 40 feet wide and 2 feet deep, a clear, rapid stream ; the bluffs on either side are 500 to 1,500 feet apart, and 75 to 120 feet high, and between there is a fertile bottom, bearing a belt of cotton-woods, and containing a few ranches. In the vicinity of the stream, on either side, the surface is broken into low bluffs and hills, and continues so to Badito. From the Saint Charles to the crossing of the Muddy, about 7.5 miles, our route skirted the eastern limit of the foot- hills of the Greenhorn, and beyond that point it may be considered as having fairly entered those foot- hills, although, in all of the distance from Saint Charles to Badito, are frequent wide spaces of flat mesa the hills often have a thin growth of small cedars, but no timber of any value, and the soil is everywhere of little account, except in the narrow river- bottom. The streams crossed between Pueblo and Badito are the Saint Charles at 10.7 miles, the Muddy at 18 miles, the Little Greenhorn at 27 milesr a stream at 29 miles, the Apache at 34 miles, and the Huerfano at Badito 46.8 miles from Pueblo. On all these streams are a few ranches in the narrow strip of bottom- land. These bottoms seem fertile. The uplands furnish a spare growth of grass, but without extensive and systematical irrigation this region will sustain but a small population* |
