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Show 297 sides, interrupting the sameness by a low range of highlands, through which the stream has cat a veritable caiion in miniature. This sandstone barrier forms rather the sudden limits of a horizon of the Tertiary formation, possibly indicating a shore- line of the earlier stages of the drainage and erosive action which finally resulted in the present configuration of the country. Below this point, in the north side of the valley, a group of curious little monument formations are noticed, which recall those to which Monument Park in Colorado owes its peculiarity; only these are fashioned out of the clayey debris resulting from the disintegration of the arenaceous deposits of the adjacent Tertiary, their tops capped by fragments of sandstone detached from higher ledges, and which have retarded their demolition by the elements, reproducing, on a smaller scale, the same phenomena witnessed in the fantastic shapes which cluster in the acclivities of the little park at the base of Pike's Peak. Above the gateway, the valley again widens, and, as we advance, beautiful glade like depressions open charming vistas into the neighboring uplands. WOOD, to the westward, a range of low mountains files across the gap in the distance, their rounded summits and declivities covered with evergreen forests and great plats of yellow- leafed aspen; this is the watershed which preserves the continuity of the Spanish range in the diminished altitude and bulk of its extension southward, and which is here 10,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea. At the heads of the Ponil and the north branch of the Vermejo, the divide sags, opening passes 9,600 and 9,500 feet in altitude, and which are perhaps the lowest in the range north of the Taos Pass. Leaving the bed of the stream to the left, the trail rises a low upland, and, in a short distance, gains the park- like basin at the head of the valley, in which also rises an affluent of the south branch of the Vermejo. The eastern rim is quite low at this point, which either indicates a very shallow basin or the comparatively limited extent of its area drained by the Van Brimmer. A slight descent leads to the borders of a little pond, near the margin of which highly ferruginous ledges outcrop, and quantities of limonite nodules are scattered over the surface. The evaporation of the water has left it margined by a shelving beach, which is whitened by an efflorescence which renders the water unpalatable, although the flocks which are pastured here are said to relish both the water aud the saline- impregnated earth. This point, which is some twenty- five miles from the lower entrance of the valley, has an altitude of about 8,000 feet. Clumps of pine- many of which are girdled by the Utes in quest of condiments for their pottages- are scattered over the park, the undulating surface of which is broken by low, flat- topped hills or ridges, which are apparently composed of Tertiary sandstone and shales. To the west, southwest, and northwest lies the wooded crest of the main range, in the direction of which the park country becomes more and more diversified on approaching the outlying ridges of tilted sedimentary deposits reclining upon its flanks. Our route passes along the eastern edge of the basin, in a direction a little west of north, amidst varied local scenery and glimpses of sublime moantain views. Twelve or fourteen miles from the lakelet, at the head of the Van Brimmer, we reach the main or north branch of the Vermejo, at a point just above the gorge by which it makes its exit from the park, and where the altitude is about 7,700 feet. About midway between the above points, a diminutive tributary of the south branch winds through an extensive level vega tract, which is surrounded by low mesas and ridges, between which communication is had with other basins by pretty |