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Show COLORADO. 463 mountain meadows, just above the timber line ; the late ice- locked rivulets again ran unvexed, and the brawling brooks were musically pouring their increased waters into Clear Creek. From the summit, even in the hottest weather, all these streams appear as if frozen solid ; the eye can perceive no motion, and the white foam over the ripples has the exact appearance of ice. Our ride over the grassy slope to the cabin was delightful, the air having moderated to a pleasant warmth. McClellan Mountain, to our right, presented only here and there a patch of snow. Nearly all the west face of it is inaccessible, there be-ing but a few ravines filled with earth slides up which zigzag trails have been with great difficulty constructed. From our road the cabin and ore- house of the Stevens' mine seems as if suspended against the cliff in mid- air, the chains which, anchored into the solid rock, hold it in place being, of course, invisible to us. One could scarcely avoid the conclusion that it maintained position contrary to the law of grav-ity. A few rods west of it is one of these earth slides mentioned, and up this a man and donkey were slowly working their way along a zig-zag which looked to us nearly perpendicular. This trail leads up to a point even with the mine, and thence a way is worked along the face of the rock to the cabin. In addition to all these difficulties, the air is so rare that few men can do a full day's work there, but the ore is so rich that the Stevens pays well for working. Evidently there never can be sudden inflation from an increase of the precious metals, for the difficulty of getting will always make them valuable. I strained my eye to find the cabin of the Vesper Mine, which we visited on the 4th of July, and finally saw it within a few rods of the summit, looking like a pigeon- house stuck on a rock. Below it was the gulch and earth slide, with a slope of seventy degrees for 2,500 feet, down which we rolled the granite bowlders. After a good warming and a hot feed at the cabin, we gladly took carriage at 3 P. M., and, all the way being down- hill, reached Georgetown at five, delighted, disgusted, frost- touched, tired and sleepy. Moral Go to the summit between June 15th and August 15th, or wait till settled cold weather. The three months I spent among the mines of Colorado were among the most pleasant in my life. In August I came down to Denver and thence, by way of Bowlder City, visited the rich Caribou District, which was just then exciting so much attention. Leaving Denver at 4 A. M., with the Sunday morning express sent out by the Rocky Mountain News, we drove north- west over the high plains lying be-tween that city and Bowlder. This region is now dotted with arti- |
