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Show 98 This spur is short, and a well- marked serrated range of peaks. On the Una weep side its slopes below timber- line are long and gradual, but very sharp and steep from the 10,000- feet curve to the summits. On the side of the 6an Miguel, however, the slopes are more abrupt as far as to the narrow valley of that stream. The eastern mountains of this spur, especially the group in the northeast, drained entirely by the Uncompahgre, are very much chopped, weathered, and eroded, and exhibit very peculiar features. In some instances the mountain- summits are thin walls of even crests, quite long, and vertical for from 500 to 1,200 feet below their summits. In otheis these walk are so weathered that prisms and spires only are left surmounting the thin slabs. Several of them are truncated at from 13,700 to 13,900 feet above sea- level, presenting the appearance of pyramidal frustums. In the midst of these strange forms Blaine's Peak, a sharp, decided cone on the extreme northern edge of the range, is situated. It is 14,249 feet in height, exceeding by about 400 feet the masses to the east and south. As just stated, it is in the extreme northern part of the Unaweep range, and is drained altogether by the Unaweep and Uncompahgre; the main stem of the former heading in an extensive cup- like amphitheater southwest of Blaine's Peak, of which this peak occupies the northeastern part of the rim. The southern part of the rim of this crateriform cavity is one of the wall like ridges before referred to ; the eastern, a thin and sharp divide between the western fork of the Uncompahgre, Crescent Creek, and the Unaweep. The northern rim is broken down for nearly a mile of its crest in a Y- shaped notch, through the narrow bottom of which the headwaters of the Unaweep escape. Blaine's Peak was not ascended, since it was not necessary as a station, the topography having been secured from more easily- attained points. The northern side of this peak is inaccessible on account of the nearly vertical ledges and buttresses of this face. From the south it is necessary to cross the high rim of the amphitheater before beginning the ascent, which must be made along the sharp divide on the eastern side of the cavity. The easiest way to attain the summit would be to cross over the head of the most northerly of the three extreme eastern tributaries of the San Miguel to the southern rim of Crescent Creek, and then to follow this stream to its junction with the main stream and up its seemingly open cafion to the divide mentioned. This course can be taken upon mules, at least as far as timber- line on Crescent Creek, whence the last 1,800 feet can be made upon foot. Crescent Creek, within 2 miles of the Uncompahgre, cations, and its course cannot be followed from that stream, even if its mouth could be reached. It empties into the Uncompahgre in the most formidable portion of the great gorge, and is unattainable from that stream save near its head, which can be reached by crossing from Red Mountain Valley west, to the head of the tributary mentioned above. Blaine's Peak may be also reached in this way, but all trails in this neighborhood are excessively steep, and in many places rocky from slides and choked with fallen trees. SAN MIGUEL RIVER. The San Miguel River receives the greater part of its waters from its two tributaries, the northern of which drains the southern slopes of the Unaweep group of peaks and portions of the rim of the Animas Basin opposite the headwaters of the north fork of Mineral Creek. The southern, heading against the headwaters of the south fork of Mineral Creek, drains the western portion of the outer periphery of this oval- shaped rim, and, flowing north, unites with the northern, or Gold Kun, from 12 to 15 miles from the head of either branch. The northern of these two streams flows for 8 miles of its course in a flat valley 400yards wide, rnnning with sluggish flow in serpentine folds, and bends from side to side of this valley. The edges of the valley are bluffs of Cretaceous sandstones, capped on the north by brown trachytes. At the head of the valley is a semicircular cut- de- mc, with walls on the eastern and southern sides from 450 to 1,200 feet in vertical height, over which dash in spray the headwaters of this fork. The northern of the three forks into which Gold Run is here divided, flows from its head, 2£ miles distant, in a succession of cataracts, rapids, and falls, the fall being nearly 4,000 feet in 2 miles. Just above the junction of the two forks, Gold Run plunges into a cafion, and, in a series of cataracts, attains in 1 mile a level 1,000 to 1,200 feet lower than the valley above. In the cafion, cut through sandstone, it is joined by the south fork, and flows off in a west of north direction to the Gunnison, as far as can be seen in a deep cafion with shelving sides of red sandstone. The south fork, from the lake 4 miles below its head, flows in steep and deep ravines, and 2 miles below the lake, just above its junction with Turkey Creek, rushes in a series of cataracts into quite a deep cafion, with narrow, grassy bottom, along which runs a trail to the lately- discovered gold- placers on the Gold Fork, at its month. Trout Lake is a beautiful Bheet of water, one- third of a mile long, nearly inclosed in brilliant red mountains, skirted with green. Its vicinity furnishes one of the most picturesque and warmly- tinted pictures of mountain scenery in Colorado. The lake abounds with trout, which, however, are not of as firm flesh as the trout of the mount- |