OCR Text |
Show 293 metamorphic and granitic ranges to which the great parks of Colorado belong, of which it is a diminutive representative in this southern region. The valley is drained by the Moreno and Cienegilla Greeks, which unite to form the Cimarron at the portal of the upper caiion, where it breaks through the eastern rim of the valley a little to the north of its middle, at which point it has an altitude of about 8,100 feet. To the south, far np the course of the Cienegilla, a broad vega, or meadow- intervale, extends; but to the north, along the Moreno Creek, the bottom- land rapidly narrows, and before reaching Elizabethtown, seven miles above its confluence, the stream is confined within a narrow valley between the slopes reaching down from Great Baldy and an outlying rocky hill on the west side. Above the town, the upper course of the stream is bordered by beautiful undulating pasture- lands, surrounded by an amphitheater of low wooded hills, which culminate in Great Baldy, four miles to the eastward, whose bare rounded dome looks down from a height of 3,500 feet upon the town, or 12,100 feet above the sea. Throughout the main valley, more or less distinct terrace- levels gradually rise into the surrounding hills, forming broad, grassy benches, cut at intervals by the little affluents which descend to join the main streams. These benches are apparently made up of drift- material derived from the neighboring mountains, whose flanks are buried beneath a vast accumulation of ddbris, forming in localities high, rounded foothills flanking the mountains, and which are grassed over, with here and there groves of pine standing upon some outlying rocky point. The wide intervale which occupies so considerable a portion of the valley immediately adjacent the principal streams is furnished with a rich, dark, loamy soil, which produces an abundance of wild hay and bountiful harvests of all the hardier cultivated crops. The snows which fall during winter, and the copious showers occurring during the rainy season, which latter sets in the latter part of May, afford ample moisture. The autumn months, and indeed far into winter, are dry and incomparably pleasant. Even the winter and early spring, with their occasional severe snow- storms, are generally open, so that cattle gain their own subsistence the greater portion of the season. Limited areas in the lower portions of the bottom- lands are wet and hoggy early in the season, and here is occasionally observed a white efflorescence, similar to that occurring in the plains. Peaty deposits are also met with in the adjacent slopes, or wherever springs issue. A notable instance of such a formation may be seen at Mr. Pascoe's, near the entrance of the Cimarron Caiion. The subsoil, however, throughout the lower level consists of the finer materials of the drift, which have accumulated in the bed of the ancient lake which once occupied the entire valley. As we approach the heads of the valley, as also its border-slopes, the drift increases in coarseness, where its character has been partially exposed to view in the operations of placer- mining. There would appear to be little doubt but that a vast quantity of the loose materials which were swept down into the basin from the neighboring heights during the Glacial epoch have been subsequently drawn off in the drainage effected through the Cimarron Caiion, in the mouth of which they were redeposited upon the old lacustral benches bordering the Canadian basin, and in the terraces fashioned by the waters of the Cimarron itself. But of the deposits observed to- day, it is difficult often to decide how much is due to the ancient and the extent of subsequent modifying agencies, continued even to the present time, in building up and adding to the superficial deposits, especially those accumulations occurring along the sides of the valley. In the rather high bench on |