. Scenery of the Pacific railways, and Colorado . ble dry and weather-beaten roots, and all their vitality is near the ground, wheresome branches creep out horizontally, groveling to obtain the growth and breadth denied to themabove. The valley finally closes in and the twin peaks of Grays impend, the nearer one dark, stern, andprecipitous ; the other still far off, soft in outline, and sloping easily down to a great bed of ice andsnow—the hidden, shadow-loving remnant of a glacier. Another half-hour of climbing brings the jaded explorers to a precipice, with deep drifts surround-ing it. The s
. Scenery of the Pacific railways, and Colorado . ble dry and weather-beaten roots, and all their vitality is near the ground, wheresome branches creep out horizontally, groveling to obtain the growth and breadth denied to themabove. The valley finally closes in and the twin peaks of Grays impend, the nearer one dark, stern, andprecipitous ; the other still far off, soft in outline, and sloping easily down to a great bed of ice andsnow—the hidden, shadow-loving remnant of a glacier. Another half-hour of climbing brings the jaded explorers to a precipice, with deep drifts surround-ing it. The soft new snow of unknown depth looks treacherously calm and beautiful, and where itmeets the opposite mountain-wall has the aspect of a iih>d glacier, upholding fallen bowlders, andscored with a long drift of rock and gravel cast down from overhanging cliffs. The precipice itselfdescends six hundred feet or more, and is terribly dark and dizzy. This passed, a long, steep slope of snow-clad rocks rises before the traveler, and a narrow Tower of Babel, Garden of the Gsds, Colorado. THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS. 23 winding in short, precarious zigzags on its face, leads toward the summit. The horses are exhausted,and it becomes no longer safe to ride them. The rest of the journey is made afoot; and suddenly,but not without desperate exertions, the summit of the nearer peak is attained. Below, walled in by a vast mountain-chain, whose average height exceeds 13,000 feet, whosepasses are from 8,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea-level—far below, sketched out like a vast topo-graphical map, is the Middle Park, with all its subordinate mountain-ranges and numerous streamsand rivers ; the springs of the west and north are Mount Lincoln, Pikes, Longs, and other peakswithout number—a white sea of shrouded mountains. Our illustration of Grays Peak (page 18) is taken from the wagon-road near the are two or three ways to the summit—one of the best leading to Kelso C
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1878
