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Show 92 and, flowing east, joins it near where it begins its northward course, flowing through a very deep and gorge- like cation. Turning westward, the Uncompahgre headwaters are found against the head of the Animas, and the tributaries of this stream, all flowing in deep and abrupt oafions, drain the northern portion of the divide, in which Cement and the North Fork of Mineral Creek take their rise. The divide between the Animas and Uncompahgre is not difficult, nor that between the headwaters of the North Fork of Mineral Creek and the Red Fork of Uncompahgre; but the tributaries of this stream, and the stream itself, can be followed in any case but a few miles from their heads. To all intents and purposes, the headwaters of the Uuoompahgre are shut off from the onter world save by way of the headwaters of the Animas, the Uncompahgre gorge which begins at the mouth of Red Creek being utterly impassable. This gorge is from 4 to 6 miles in length, through which the stream flows in its course to the north- north went. The western side of the divide is drained by the San Miguel, which by its two main branches collects the waters, and theu uniting and plunging into a deep canon, with Bandstone walls, flows northwest to the Gunnison. The southern side is drained by Cascade aud Lime Creeks, tributary to the Animas, below its cafion; and the eastern by the Rio Grande and the southern tributaries of the Lake Fork flowing eastward. From the outer periphery of the elliptical divide, then, we see the waters flowing in radial directions to all points of the compass as from a dome. Within the periphery, spurs from it fill up with mountain- forms the entire area, save the narrow canons and valley8 of the streams. In these valleys there is no surface of any extent which is approximately level save Baker's Park, a small area of perhaps 2£ square miles; just above the point the Animas cuts through the southern rim of its upper basin. Upon Mineral Creek also are several small flats of inconsiderable extent, mostly marsh land, or else covered with bowlders. Baker's Park has been described by Prof. J. J. Stevenson in Vol. I l l of the survey reports, and needs no extended description here, even if minute description were within the proposed scope of this paper. Since his visit, however, Baker's Park, which was then almost uninhabited, has become the center of quite a large mining population. Wbero my camp was established in 1873, at the month of the Cnuuinghara Gulch, where then there were no bouses, has sprung up a town of log cabins called Howardsville, built upon both sides of the stream ; and at intervals of 4 or 5 miles along the Animas, above aud below Howardsville, are incipient mining towns; of these Silverton, near the month of Crescent Creek, is quite well built, the houses being in many oases quits handsome frame structures. It is well provided with stores, blacksmith- shops, and bar- rooms. Eureka, 4 miles above Howardsville, and La Plata City, at the Anions* Forks, are being quite rapidly built up. Baker's Park will probably within the next five or ten years be well covered with houses and mills. The most noteworthy feature of the drainage- basin of the Animas is the excessive steepness of its mountains, or at least of those directly bordering the main streams. The height of Baker's Park above sea- level averages 9,400 feet, and the peaks within a mile or so of its surface, exceed 13,000 feet altitude. Slopes of 45° are common, and nearly vertical bluffs for hundreds of feet are not infrequeut, as seen along the Animas River above Eureka and on the South Fork of Mineral Creek. ' The peaks in this elliptical divide, the dome of the San Juan country, will average over 13.000 feet in height. Those at the vertices of the ellipse, near the headwaters of Lake Fork of the Gunnison aud Mineral Creek, approach or exceed 14,000 feet. About the headwaters of Cement and Mineral Creeks the Animas and Uncompahgre divide, the mountains are lower, and, with the exception of one or two peaks between Cement and the headwaters of the Western Fork of the Upper Animas, whioh are steep knife- edges of volcanic effort*- loose fragments of rhyolite or trachyte under as steep gradients as the material will stand- are of rounded slopes, which, though still retaining the characteristic steepness common to the mountains of this entire region, are, as a rule, covered with Alpine grasses, and the soil, though often boggy from melting snow, offers foot- hold for animals in their attempts at climbing or crossing them. The most marked feature in this portion of the divide are the two brilliaut scarlet- red peaks between the headwaters of Cement Creek and the Red Fork of the Uncompahgre. They are not of very great height, but the decomposition of the pyrites in the trachytes composing them leaves the entire surface of those beautiful cones a brilliant red, which contrasts strongly with the green bald pates or the sombre brown of the traohytic masses of tb° neighboring peaks. They attract the eye instantly from any point of view by their brilliancy, and are a well- known landmark. At their bases on the Red Fork of the Uncompahgre is a small area, probably 200 acres, of nearly level ground, which is the locus of a new mining town called, I believe, Park City. The valley is named Red Mountain Valley, and is attained only from the Animas side, except by a rough and steep trail from the headwaters of the Uncompahgre; but this question of communication will be treated in full hereafter in this paper. From the head of the North Fork of Mineral Creek to the southwestern vertex of the |