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Show 296 desolated but forbidding spots, even whose crystal waters are turned to mud, desecrated by the prosaic results of tbe search for treasure. Along Willow Gulch, which is here a narrow defile bordered by steep acclivities, the placers are still being worked to the extent of the water-supply. One is struck with the vast quantities of coarse materials predominating in the drift debris of this high mountain- gulch. However, in some of the shallower lateral ravines, finer deposits are observed, and at one point, during the winter, tunnels were drifted into the baiik along or in quest of pay- streaks upon the " bed- rock ". The climb of half a mile or so out of the gulch, by a trail sufficiently precipitous for practicable traveling, and the summit of Blackhorse Pass is gained, nearly six miles by the route due east of Elizabetbtown. The crest of tbe saddle, now bare, was formerly clothed with a dense forest of small spruce, whose naked blanched trunks, prostrated by the fierce gales that sweep the summit, form formidable abatis over extensive tracts of the mountain- side, with here and there clumps of bare poles still standing, weird evidences of the devastation wrought by the fires. THE VERMKJO PARKS. In October, 187£, I was favored with the opportunity of joining a party of gentlemen on a week's hunting and pleasure excursion to the interesting region of the sources of the Vermejo, iu the northwestern portion of the district under consideration. Our route led up the valley of the Van Brimmer, the entrance of which is reached some twelve miles to the northward of the Cimarron, passing on the way the Pofiil and Cerososo, up whose valleys we have a distant view of the long ridge of Costilla Peak. The entrance to this little valley seems to foreshadow at the outset its character throughout, a promise which is fully verified. It can hardly with propriety be termed a canon, although its lower course and intervals above are bordered by the high bluffs of the Tertiary formation, from the base of which a talus over the Cretaceous shales sweeps down into the valley for a short distance above its embouchure. The greater extent of the valley lies entirely in the Tertiary deposits, as is the case with all the- streams intersecting the great plateau; bat the Tan Brimmer may be distinguished irom the others by the mild expression, so to speak, of its topographical features, and which render it a favorite route to the park country. Rising just on the edge of the park at its head, it would appear to have been less actively engaged in the drainage of the chain of old reservoirs than many of its compauion streams; consequently, acting the office of a quiet waste- escape for the waters which flowed over the barrier at its head, its bed exhibits scarcely any of those bold features which are attributable to violent erosive action. Indeed, for a distance of several miles its bed and sor-roundings become almost monotonous from their repetition every mile of the way, presenting a shallow trough gently flaring up into the bolder acclivities which hem in the valley, but which is redeemed by those accessories which nature so effectively employs in embellishing alike the level plains and rugged hills. The pine- and piiion- covered heights form a pleasing contrast with the light shades of the close herbage carpeting the lower depressions, relieved on the steeper slopes by patches of the rich- hued autumn foliage of the dwarf- oak, designs excelling tbe most beautiful tapestries, which seem to have been conceived iu imitation of these natural patterns so prevalent in the valleys and on the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado. About midway of thfc valley, the hills approach from the opposite |