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Show 97 border of the gorge, to the level of the stream, it is nearly 6,000 feet; to the summit of Blaine's Peak, at the head of one of the tributaries of the Unoompahgre, it is about 400 feet more. The mountains, or rather ruins, bordering the gorge, especially on the western side and giving it its depth and grandeur, are simply indescribable. If the god of desolation ever exercised his wildest freaks on earth be chose this spot, and cut these lofty masses into those strange forms and weird shapes; those yawning chasms with their reu jaws; those beetling precipices with plntonic bro^ is horjridly frowning, capping all with slender columns and spires under different angles of inclination to the horizon, which, projected against the sky, seem to be black figures of supernatural origin dancing in glee over the ruin below. Of the impassable nature of this gorge we speak from sad experience. Bent upon " exploring" it, we succeeded only in tumbling our mules into the canon, and, after leaving one therein, chose a little worse place to better our trail and succeeded in causing a other roll on the part of our pack- mules of some 1,500 feet, which left us without adequate transportation; and had it not been that we found a prospector here with stock, which we purchased, we might have been stuck in that gorge until this day. The Uneoinpahgre, gorge about 4 miles from its head opens out into first a wide canon with fiat bottom, covered with stones and sand, and finally into a small park- like area, probably a mile and a half in width and from 8 to 10 miles in length, bordered on the west side by a straight line of cliffs of sandstone, capped with volcanic material, gradually decreasing in height toward the north, and on the east by slopes more or less steep from the Uncompangre group and its spurs. This park, from the Animas River or the headwaters of the Unoompahgre, is reached by a trail over the highest part of the ridgeeast of the Uncompahgre gorge, and about 2 miles from it, which has already been described in my executive report. The upper end of the park is quite well wooded along the stream with cotton wood. Scrub- oak attaining 6 or 8 inches in diameter and yellow pines are also found. It is generally well grassed with tall mountain bunch- grass, with wild oats and blue- joint. About midway of the length of the park are hot suiphur- spriugs impregnated with iron and salts of lime and the alkalies. They have formed a red deposit over 6 or 8 acres of ground which is in crusted with saline efflorescences and bare of vegetation. I observed no outlet to the springs. Their temperature exceeds 120° Fahrenheit; this was the maximum register of our thermometers. Near the head of the park are said to be quite a large group of these springs from which the river and its fork derived their Indian name, u The Valley of Fountains." The entire surface of the park is below 7,500 feet and the greater part of it is susceptible of irrigation. • The Uncompahgre River which flows along the western border of the park is here about 60 feet in width ( in August.) and 3 feet in maximum depth. The lower end of the park is nearly bare of vegetation, save sage, mountain- tea, and cactus of the flat- leaved or prickly- pear variety. Near the northern limit of etlas sheet 61c, ( 38° 10',) the Uncompahgre is joined from the south west by the Unaweep and the park is closed by ledges which close in upon the etream. Indian trails, here broad and well worn, follow on down the Uncompahgre, with brauches running through the Unaweep Valley southwest to the San Miguel, and beyond to the Navajo and Moqnis country, crossing the old Spanish trail from Loe Angeles to Santa Fe" near the bend of the Dolores. The Unaweep Creek, at its junction with the Uncompaehre, is about two- thirds the volume of that stream, of pure, bright, sparkling water, Sowing in a valley, which just abov • thin junction widens out into quite an extensive area covered with sage and scattered bunch- grasses. r* je stream about 4 miles above its mouth flares out in fan- shape, its numerous branches draining the northern slopes of the Unaweep range. The entire drainage-area of the Unaweep, with the oxception of the flat valley at its mouth, is a series of rounded rolling hills, heavily grassed and withont timber other than a few scattered • lamps of pines, and along the streams cotton wood, until the steeper foot- hills at the base of the Unaweep spur are reached, which are quite heavily timbered with spruce. The entire valley is a splendid range for cattle, the lower extremity not too high for - wintering them. Several thousands of acres, near the mouths of the streams in the valleys mentioned, are susceptible of irrigation, and would undoubtedly produce good crops. Beyond the limits of the valleys of the Uncompahgre and Unaweep, the country is a portion of the Colorado Plateau system, the portion of it falling in atlas- sheet 61c averaging 9,000 feet altitude, but few rounded peaks north of the Unaweep, and a few miles from it, breaking the general level. These rise only to a very small heigh* above the surface of the country, and are seemingly trachvtio or basaltic cones. The Unaweep spar shoots off from the rim of the Animas Basin near the h< » ad of Mineral Creek, and trending north 75° west, forms the dividing ridge between the headwaters of the San Miguel south fork and those of the Unaweep. Its northeastern slopes form the grotesque western walls of the Uncompahgre gorge. |