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Show 99 a in streams, nor do they attain to as great size. This may he due to the effects of the vegetable mold of the bottom of the lake and the bubbles of gas which are continually rising therefrom through the water. It cannot be seen how the trout reached the lake, since lesser difficulties than the falls and cataracts below effectually prevent their ascending other streams in this area. Southwest of Trout Lake is a wide timbered pass leading to the Dolores River, which, with the Mineral Creek and Cascade Creek, drains the high group of peaks at the head of the south fork of the San Miguel. The Dolores, a few miles below its head, is inclosed in a canon with steep sandstone walls, from which it does not emerge until the great bend is reached. A difficult and nearly- obliterated trail, traversed last year by Lieut. C. W. Whipple's party, leads down this stream. San Miguel Mountains, Between the Dolores and the San Miguel is a detached group of high peaks, three of which exceed 14,000 feet in height, hitherto called the Sierra San Mignel. The drainage- axisliB nearly east and west, cut through by the San Miguel River near its cascade. This group reaches its greatest height in a massive peak, with extensive fields of snow on its northeastern flank. This peak was ascended fin 1874 by Mr. Spiller, and in our notes was called Glacier Point. Mr. Wilson, of the Geological Survey of the Territories, also ascended it, and called it Mount Wilson. It is the most massive and imposing mountain in Southern Colorado, with the single exception of the Sierra Blanca, near Fort Garland, and is 14,243 feet in height. Two miles east of this great peak is a strange freak of nature. This is a thin column of trap- rock, about 230 feet in height, shooting vertically from a rude cone, forming a slender and well- proportioned column, with rounded summit, cleft in twain to a depth of perhaps 10 feet. Its summit is about 13,150 feet above sea- level, and offers a flue point for triangula-tion, with the single objection that it cannot be ascended. To the west of the Glacier Point group are several nearly isolated masses, along the same drainage axis; of which one, an irregular group with a sharp, well- defined cone at its southeastern extremity, is remarkable for the great crater on its southwestern side, from which flows a tributary of the West Dolores. This cone was made a primary triangulation station, and uamed Dunn Peak, in honor of Gen. W. McK. Dnnn, Judge- Advocate General of the Army. It is 13,502 feet in height, and being quite detached from the lofty ranges, is a much more marked feature of the landscape than peaks of the main group exceeding it in height. West from the Dunn's Peak Crater ia a beautiful sharp cone, perfectly symmetrical, reaching but little over 12,000 feet. It is the most beautiful peak I have ever seen. It is entirely detached from the other mountains, and rises, a solitary, graceful peak, 3,000 feet above its base. It was named by me West Point. This is the last peak to the west until the Sierra Abajo and Sierra Le Sal are reached. South of these detached masses, and between the two main forks • f the Dolores, is a small group of peaks, less than 13,000 feet in altitude, rising abruptly from the cations of the Dolores. From West Point the horizon is a succession of nearly flat sweeping plateaus from the southwest around to the north. The tributaries of the San Miguel and Dolores, which bead in the San Miguel drainage- axis, all cut deep canons in the sandstones. The upper surfaces of the rolling country bordering the San Miguel and its tributaries, as soon as they emerge from the mountains, are most luxuriantly clothed with t b e richest of grasses. Wild oats and the tall seed Btalks of various mountain grasses reach to a man's thigh, and the whole region resembles in the latter part of August an immense field of waving graiu ; clumps of quaking aspen and of yellow pine vary the surface and beautify the landscape. The region is too high for other purposes than summer grazing, except in the narrow canons of the streams, where occasional small plat* sufficiently low for cultivation may be irrigated. Game seems to be quite abundant ; wild turkeys were seen upon the San Miguel South Fork. On the Dolores, bears, both black and cinnamon, are frequently seen, and sleep was nearly impossible for us on account of the continuous and multiplied cries of the California lions. Small game, sncti as grouse, and, on the bald- topped mountains, ptarmigan, or mountain quails, and i a the streams mountain tront are easily captured. Ztieide between Doloree and San Juan, Sierra La Plata, and uppjr drainage- area of the La Plata, etc, Tbe radial dram age- ax is, which from the head of the South Fork of Mineral Creek trends south 35° west as far as to tbe Sierra La Plata, is ( with the exception of a few traohytic masses, less than 13,000 feet altitude, 6outh and west of the Dolores headwaters) a ridge of comparatively low broken hills, covered with timber, and drained by Herinosa Creek, a tributary of the Animas, and by steep rills flowing into the caflon of the Dolores, until the group of mountains known as the Sierra La Plata, twenty- six miles from the rim of the Animas Basin, is reached. Here this drainage axis attains a maximum height of 13,300 feet at the head of the North Fork of the Kio Los Man cos, where the highest of the La Plata group is situated. |