25. The Park Range.

This forms the western wall of the three northernmost of the Parks. In the northern part it is high, its peaks reaching a height of more than 12,000 feet. West of Middle Park it is depressed, barely reaching a height of 11,000 feet, and in this part the Grand River has cut a tremendous gorge, nearly 3000 feet deep, cleaving the range from base to summit. Farther south it rises again, and its peaks attain a first-class height. At the northwest corner of South Park stands Mount Lincoln, named in honour of the martyred President of the Republic, 14,296 feet high; Quandary Peak, 14,269 feet; and many others of nearly equal magnitude. Near the lower end of South Park the range ends abruptly in the Buffalo Peaks, the highest of which is 13,541 feet high. Beyond, the range is represented only by comparatively low hills.

West of North and Middle Parks this range ends the system. Thence westward, a succession of plateaus, one below another, like a gigantic staircase, carries the level of the country down to the Green River.

26. The Sawatch and Elk Ranges.

In the latitude of South Park the Park Range is by no means the end of the system.

There follows, travelUpper Arkansas, here

ling westward, the valley of the trending with the ranges nearly south, across which rises in cold solemn majesty the Sawatch Range, the "Sierra Madre" of the early Jesuit padres, a range which, for a hundred miles, is crested with a continuous line of peaks more than 14,000 feet in height. Above its northern. end towers the mountain of the Holy Cross, 14,176 feet in altitude, on whose eastern face a cross of snow glitters in the morning sunlight. This cross is formed by the

snow lying in two crevices at right angles to one another on the almost perpendicular face of the mountain. long arm is fully 1000 feet in length from top to bottom.

Following the irregular crest of the range southward, we pass in succession Massive Mount, 14,298 feet; Elbert Peak, 14,351 feet; La Plata Mount, 14,311 feet; Mount Harvard, 14,375 feet; Mount Yale, 14,187 feet; Mount Princeton, 14,196 feet; Mount Shavano, 14,239 feet; Mount Ouray, 14,043 feet; besides many more unnamed peaks nearly or quite equalling these in altitude.

The passes in this range are correspondingly high, only one, and that near the southern end, being below the limit of timber, which is at 12,000 feet above sea.

West of this range rise branches of the Grand River, the Gunnison and Roaring Fork; and among the tributaries to these streams are several ranges, ridges, and detached groups, known collectively as the Elk Mountains. These mountains are of volcanic origin. Some of the peaks are of volcanic material, readily distinguished from those of sedimentary material by their light-gray, almost white, colour, while the others are a vivid red, brown, or maroon. In sharp contrast with the heavy massive forms of those ranges heretofore considered are the spires and pinnacles of these catastrophic mountains. In the eastern members the peaks reach nearly as great an altitude as in the Sawatch, but toward the west they are much lower, and with their disappearance the system of plateaus and mesas of the region of the Colorado begins.

27. The San Juan Range.

From the south end of the Sawatch Range a mass of hills runs south-westward, connecting with an enormous mass of mountains about the heads of the Rio Grande, the Rio San Juan, and many branches of the Gunnison.

They can be defined only as a mass, with a long spur, of magnitude amply sufficient to entitle it to the name of range, running southward, and forming the western wall of the San Luis Valley.

To the

This mass radiates drainage in all directions. east flows the Rio Grande; to the south the Animas, Florida, Pinos, and the main San Juan; to the west and north the Dolores, San Miguel, Uncompahgre, and other large tributaries to the Grand River. Within these mountains there is no level country, practically. The largest valley, known as Baker's Park, is but four miles long by half a mile in width. It is unnecessary to go into details regarding the height of this range. Suffice it to say that it contains at least a dozen peaks exceeding 14,000 feet, and between one and two hundred above 13,000 feet.

South of this group, in New Mexico, the level of the plateaus is broken by several ranges of greater or less magnitude. Among them may be mentioned the Zuni Mountains, whose peaks reach 12,000 feet; the Sierra Magdalena, Sierra Mateo, and the Sierra de las Mimbres.

28. The Continental Divide.

The water-parting of the continent is borne throughout by this system of mountains, most of the way following the crests of ranges, but in some cases stepping down to the broad flat surfaces of plateaus.

In the British Possessions we find it first following the crest of the western member of the system, and, as we trace it southward, it is seen to step eastward from range to range, until, on entering the territory of Montana, it is found that the eastern range bears it. At the south end of this range a western offset is made to the Bitter Root Range, which it follows south-eastward to its

end. Then it follows the summit-line of a broken plateau-like country, in which are several excellent passes, to the head of the Wind River Range, whose jagged crest separates the Colorado from the Big Horn. This range,

ending abruptly, leaves only a broad plateau to divide the waters. The Park Range next takes up the "divide," carrying it to the head of North Park, where it makes a great loop to the eastward to enclose Middle Park in the area of Pacific drainage.

Then it sweeps far to the westward, and follows the high summits of the Sawatch Range to its end; then, pursuing a winding course in the confused mass of the San Juan Mountains, it takes itself again to the plateaus, and follows an ill-defined southerly line to the borders of Mexico. Though it follows, as nearly as can be determined, the summit-line of the great general elevation, it by no means follows that it occupies the crests of the highest ranges in the neighbourhood. The reverse seems to be as frequently the case, that there are, on the right and left, ranges which in altitude may overtop that which separates the streams of the two oceans.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PLATEAU REGION OF THE COLORADO RIVER.

1. General View.

THE country drained by the Colorado River is a peculiar region. It is a country of plateaus and cañons, the plateaus mainly arid and sterile, where the few streams flow in deep gorges far below the surface.

The longest and most northern branch of the Colorado is Green River, which heads in the Wind River Mountains, against the sources of the Big Horn and the Snake Rivers. This stream, in its long course towards the' south, receives the waters of the Uintah from the west, and the Yampa and White Rivers from the east. Near latitude 38° 15', and longitude 110°, it is joined by the Grand River, a stream of nearly equal size, which heads in Middle Park, Colorado, drawing its first supplies of water from the snow-fields of Long's Peak. The stream below the junction of these two forks is known as the Colorado.

Below their junction, the principal branches of the Colorado from the east are the San Juan, the Colorado Chiquito or Flax River, William's Fork, and the Gila; on the west, the "Dirty Devil," Paria, and Virgin.

This region is limited on the east, north, and northwest by high mountain ranges. Its surface is nearly flat, but by no means unbroken. There is little rolling or undulating country. Changes of level take place by very