One can imagine that the Plains at that time were a pretty panorama for a spectator, say on Bradford Hill. Here is a sketch of it, from our favorite diary:

"All the region, from Long's Peak around by the Cache-a-la-Poudre, Beaver and Bijou Creeks to the summit of the divide between the Platte and Arkansas, and back past where I stand 'to the place of beginning,' lies spread out at my feet like an unrolled map. West is a vast sea of dark-green mountains, sweeping away and upward into the clouds, tipped in the distance with the whitest of snow, now more or less agitated by the storm-spirit. These be the everlasting watch-towers of the Continent. But the first is the lovely part of the picture. There, spread out like a carpet, glowing in the rich splendor of the autumn sunlight, lies the brown, swelling plain, cut in various directions by wood-fringed streams—a magnificent sight! Col umns of blue smoke rise calmly, and float leisurely away from Auraria City, from Placer Camp, and intermediate camps along the river. The Ameri‹ can has come to this hitherto unknown region, and the sound of the rifle and the axe, the lowing of stock and falling of timber around the smoke columns, are sounding the death-knell of the wild beast and the wilder man of the soil-are proclaim. ing the fact that their restless and encroaching enemy has set himself boldly down in their midst, to scatter them like chaff, and to possess and improve the talent they have so long had buried in the ground."

GOLD FOUND IN THE MOUNTAINS.

21

During the early Winter a town called St. Charles was laid out on the east bank of the Platte, opposite Auraria, by a party from Lawrence, most of which returned home. The interests of St. Charles were left in the hands of a man who sold out to the "Denver Town Company;" hence, through the natural process of aggregation, DENVER as it now is.

CHAPTER II.

Grand Physical Divisions of Colorado-The Snowy Range, The Foot-hills, The Valley, and Over the Range-Characteristics of the Snowy Range, of the Foot-hills-The Great Mineral BeltMetalliferous Veins-Mode of Occurrence of Gold.

BEFORE proceeding further in our account of the discovery of gold in Colorado, it may be well to devote some space to a general description of the great physical features of the country. Of a new place we first want to know where it is, then what it is. Our description, in connection with the map which accompanies this volume, will at least serve to render succeeding chapters more intelligible.

Colorado, then, is almost square in form, is mounted upon the Sierra Madre precisely as one mounts a horse, and covers an area of 106,475 square miles; territory enough to make thirteen States as large as Massachusetts-as much territory as is comprised in the States of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey combined. It exactly occupies the space between the 37th and 41st degrees of north latitude, and between the 25th and 32d meridians of longitude west from Washington. Its northern boundary just fences up the mouth of the North Park, allowing the North Platte to escape

GRAND DIVISIONS OF COLORADO.

23

underneath, however; its southern boundary performs the same office for the park of San Luis, whence escapes in like manner the Rio Bravo del Norte. The main bulk of the Sierra Madre lies between the 28th and 30th meridians, leaving about an equal area within the eastern and western limits of the Territory on either side; and it extends from the northern to the southern boundary of the Territory, elevated and expanded laterally to the full of its gigantic proportions.

The following grand divisions of Colorado have insensibly come to be recognized, and named by the people: The Snowy Range, or The Range, with its subdivision, the System of the Parks; the Foot-hills, with its subdivision, the Great Mineral Belt; the Valley, comprising the agricultural section, from the base of the Mountains eastward; and Over the Range, including all west of the snowy crest of the continental divide. The latter division is of little consequence, since the Basin of the upper Blue, about twenty-five miles in diameter, is all of it that has yet been found of use. It embraces the Middle Park, Bear, Grand, and Gunnison rivers, and innumerable broken mountain chains. The bottoms of these rivers furnish hundreds of square miles of excellent pasturage, but it is doubtful if anything but vegetables and the hardier cereals will mature on them, so cold and short are their seasons. The Middle Park will receive worthier mention in a subsequent portion of this work. The peculiarities of the South Park, so far as they vary from those of the Foot-hills, will be fully no

ticed under the head of Park County. The North Park is not inhabited. It is well-timbered and watered, and abounds in game, but the existence of valuable mineral deposits there, while strongly suspected, can hardly be said to have been thor-. oughly demonstrated. The San Luis Park is larger than all the others together, enjoys a warmer climate, and supports a population of perhaps ten thousand Mexicans, who confine themselves to procuring subsistence from the soil. The Honorable William Gilpin owns something more than a million acres of land here, in two separate tracts, under Spanish grants, which have been confirmed by the Senate of the United States. A year or two since he explored these estates quite thoroughly for mines, and satisfied himself at least of their existence the same as in other portions of the Mountains. The Valley, being altogether agricultural and pastoral, will be treated at length under the head of Agriculture. It is in the Foot-hills and the Snowy Range the mines occur, and hence it comes within our purpose to notice their characteristics somewhat in detail, here. We shall use the vernacular of the people of the Territory in speaking of these natural physical divisions.

Travelers on the Plains expatiate eloquently on the gigantic mountain mass that crowns the great plateau midway between St. Louis and San Francisco, "capped with eternal snow and gleaming in the sunshine with untold beauty and splendor;" but the truth is, the snow line is not reached in the Colorado mountains at all, though masses of snow