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Show 301 close in upon th£ base of the main range, thus crowding the intervening still older sedimentary formations into a much more contracted belt than that over which they extend along the course of the Vermejo, by steeply tilting or bodily lifting them up on the summit of the axis of elevation, are questions which remain for future explorations to determine. But, as we have already seen to the south, in the Vermejo Park, so to the north, in the Francisco Park, the great dike- ridge of lower Cretaceous sandstone reappears, where it presents, as shall be shown farther on, a much nearer resemblance to the topographical appearance it exhibits still farther to the north, where it is crowded up and sometimes toppled over, as along the foot of the outlying mountains surrounding Pike's Peak. From theopen gladelike depression, over which lies the Francisco Pass, the trail at once begins the descent through a narrow valley inclosed between steep Tertiary hillsides, the bed of which, now dry, bears ample evidence of violent floods during the rainy season. Perhaps five miles to the northeast of the summit, the valley suddenly opens out into a charming little park of some three or four hundred acres extent, which is traversed by the Francisco, or an independent affluent of the Purgatory, from the poiut where it emerges Ironi the hog- back ridge at the head of the park. The valley has an altitude of about 7,800 feet, indicating a descent of 800 feet from the Francisco Pass. Its bed is occupied by a level bench, the stream being bordered by a narrow intervale, from which a range of low sparsely- wooded mesas immediately rises on the north side, extending to the foot of the park, which are apparently composed of Tertiary deposits and overspread with the bowlder . and pebble- charged drift. A pretty little open valley separates this low ridge from the high Tertiary table- land immediately on the north, which sweeps down in a long gradual descent from the mountain declivity on the west, and which occupies the upland interval between the park and one of the main branches of the Francisco or Purgatory to the north. In the gap to the west, the Vermejo Mountains burst into view, their nearness permitting a careful study of the topographical features which diversify their eastward aspect; profound gulches, sharp buttress- spurs, steep debris- covered incliues springing from the foot of bastioned escarpments and inaccessible walls, over which tower sharp cones, enormous dismantled heights, and massive domes to the height of 5,000 or 6,000 feet above the little valley which nestles at their base; it is one of the most varied aud sublime near- mountain scenes in the West. Beyond the massive metaraorphic hills, here and there appear wooded peaks and rounded crests to the south of the Vermejos. The foot of the park is closed in by long grassy slopes, gradually ascending to the steeper declivities of the sandstone hills which descend from the Eaton ridge just to the south, and which a mile or so lower down close in upon the stream, confining it to a narrow valley, but only to open out into a similar park- like expansion a few miles lower down, in which is established a little placita, or Mexican hamlet. The stream, a beautiful clear trout- brook, flowing over a bed of gravel and bowlders, and fringed with willow and cottouwood, is turned into an intricacy of channels and pools by the damming at the foot of the valley- the solid structures of the beaver, u hit h abounds in all these mountain- streams. The irrigating acequias, which are taken out along the stream and carried across the high bottom- terrace, reveal in their deep washes the red clayey nature of the superficial deposits which accumulated in these open spaces when they constituted so many little lake- basins, and whose drainage, the result of slow, persistent erosion, by which means the intervening sand- |
