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Show 42 RECONNAISSANCE IN THE UTE COUNTRY. € 00 feet of the summit. The slope from Washington Gulch to the upper aspens, about one- half way up, is densely covered with the same beautiful bunch- grass before mentioned. Above this point is an occajsional patch of aspen and spruce not of much size. Slide rock extends as low as the point where the animals were left. . Ascent beyond was not very difficult, but steep. From the summit the view was magnificent. Down. the valley we saw the junction of Slate and Taylor, and far beyond the valley of Los Pinos, the divide west of LOR Pinos, Mount Chauvenet, and the end of the Uncompahgres. Northerly and northwesterly are the peaks of the Main Elk divide, high, rugged, and confused. These peaks present a great variety of form and color. Many of these expose strata of dark- red, brilliant rock, probably sandstone, alternating with thin, gray strata, the exposed face being hundreds of feet, and the strata dipping at angles of all degrees between 0° and 60°. Other peaks expose dark strata, probably slate or shale, while the highest are like Lone Mountain, covered with dark- gray syenite. Eastward are the lofty peaks of the main range. Close under the eastern base of Lone Mountain flows the east fork of Slate River, a stream thirty feet wide and one to three feet deep, with a considerable velocity and very clear. On the west, between Lone Mountain and Camp 18, is the mouth of Washington Gulch, which is nearly parallel to the Slate for live or six miles above. The valley of the Slate is here about two miles wide, and of the East River probably one mile, and below the junction the valley may be two and a half or three miles for a short distance. The hills seem, however, to close in rapidly. Down near and below the junction there is in places considerable sage, but not so much anywhere as to crowd out the bunch-grass. There is much slate in the bed of Slate River, but mostly in form of gravel and wash. The bed of East River is made of bowlders of sandstone. The creek in Washington Gulch has a solid smooth bed of dark slate. Washington Gulch diggings, ( placer,) never rich, seem abandoned now. There are rumors of diggings on Rock Creek, a branch of the Grand, ( or Roaring Fork,) which heads against East River. A wagon- road goes up East River, coming in by Cochetopa Pass and the Taylor 5 wherever we saw it, it was an excellent road. Slate River.- From Camp 18 our route was dow^ n the valley of the Slate River, the trail for the first two miles being close to the steep slope on the right of the galley to avoid the numerous soft places in the flat. Thence we turned across the valley to the left slope near the south end of Lone Mountain, ( the valley at this point being about three- fourths of a mile wide,) crossing at the same time a good wagon- road which leads up from Taylor River as far as the entrance of Washington Gulch. Below Lone Mountain the valley widened to about one and a fourth mile, gradually contracting to about three- fourths at the junction of East and Slate Rivers, about six miles straight below Camp 18; thence in a mile it gradually widens to about a njje at the mouth of Canon Creek, in the valley of which we made Cam ™ 19. Canon Greek.- Caiion Gulch contains good bunch- grass, but herbage is much less luxuriant than on the other waters of the Slate. Canon Creek is about 10 feet widq and 1 deep, rapid, with sandstone bowlder bottom. For two miles up the creek there is no bottom- land, the hills rising from 800 to 1,000 feet, and timbered to the water's edge with |