occasional bare slopes show a covering of earth and boulders, washed from above by the melting of the winter snows. Here we wound in and out among the mountains up to the heads of all the lateral valleys, then returning on the other side so as to see the line we had come by many hundreds of feet below us. Several short snowsheds were passed through before reaching the summit between two branches of the Gunnison river, just short of eight thousand feet above the sea. On the east side we again wound about, in and out of valleys, sometimes round such sharp curves that the train made almost a semi-circle, till in the evening we reached Cimarron, where we stopped the night, as there is a fine gorge of the Upper Gunnison river through which the line passes. Starting at 9 A. M. on July 16, we at once entered the gorge, and for fifteen miles had a succession of very fine scenery, the gneissic rocks forming grand precipices, sometimes overhanging, or in picturesque forms with towers and pinnacles, at others widening into little basins with fine peeps of mountain summits. Pines and firs clung to the rocks, increasing the beauty of the scene. On emerging from the gorge, the valley became wider with moderate slopes and table-topped mountains. We reached Gunnison (7580 feet) at 11:10 A. M., situated in a rather bare open plain, with rounded hills; then entering an open upland valley with finelooking meadows full of flowers-a perfect garden speckled with pale and dark yellow, pink, blue, and white flowers-the most flowery valley I have seen during my American tour, and the only one that equalled the finest of the European Alps. I could distinguish great patches of Dodecatheon, masses of lupins, and white and pink Gilias. Then we came to patches of pines and firs, and reached Sargent, 8400 above the sea, and I should think a fine station for a botanist at this time of the year. From here we entered a series of high branching valleys, up and round which we wound to ascend to Marshall Pass, the summit level of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of 10,850 feet. Stopping a few minutes on the sum-. mit, I saw many fine flowers, among which was a pentstemon with blossoms of a very dark vinous purple. The descent into the Upper Arkansas valley was very interesting from the way we entered and wound round the head of every lateral valley to gain distance for the descent at a practicable slope, so that in one place we could see three lines of the railway, one below the other, which we had just passed along. Salida, where we stayed to dine, is in a flat valley near the sources of the Arkansas river, and on leaving it we soon entered upon a very fine narrow valley with lofty mountains of conical or pyramidal forms, either smooth or jagged. Then we came to a granite district, with tors of strange and fantastic forms, with huge blocks, peaks, and balanced rocks, like hundreds of Dartmoor tors crowded together. Then more open rocky valleys before we reached the "Royal Gorge," where we beheld towering rocks of fantastic form and colouring closing in upon the river and hardly leaving room for the railway. In places there were vertical precipices about a thousand feet. high, side cañons like narrow slits, or winding majestic ravines, often with vertical walls, or with quartz dykes running up the precipitous valley sides, and always the river roaring and raging in tumultuous flood close alongside of us. It was a fine example of the cañons of the Rocky Mountains, and of the skill and enterprise required to build a railway through such a country. But there are many other lines which penetrate still wilder gorges, and which have overcome much greater difficulties, and I greatly regret I could not afford the time and cost of visiting these. As compared with Switzerland, the Rocky Mountains are very poor in snow-clad peaks and high alpine scenery, but are quite equal, and perhaps even superior, in the number, extent, and grandeur of its cañons or deep valley-gorges. On leaving this gorge the country became flat and uninteresting, and we reached Colorado Springs (six thousand feet above the sea) at half-past ten at night, having travelled about six hundred miles, through the most varied, grand, and interesting portion of the Rocky Mountain system. The next morning, after breakfast, I went on by the branch railway to |