RIO GRANDE SOUTHERN ROUTE.

Leaving Durango via the Rio Grande Southern line, the tourist is whisked across the Rio de Las Animas up Lightner Creek, past the silver and gold smelters with their seething furnaces and smoke and dust-begrimed workmen, and shortly past the famous coal banks where the black diamond is dug from the bowels of Mother Earth, and from there hauled to the smelters where it is used for the reduction and refining of its more exalted, but not more useful brethren.

Up through the valley the train speeds along among huge pines which thus far have escaped the woodman's axe, and which will be free from such invasion as long as Uncle Sam claims this particular spot as the especial reservation for the military post at old Fort Lewis.

From Fort Lewis the line passes through seemingly endless forests of pine trees, and after the reservation is passed an occasional saw-mill is sighted from its emitting unearthly screeches, which the knowing ones say is merely the head sawyer sharpening up.

CLIFF DWELLERS.

Descending the mountain into the valley, the beholder looks out on a broad expanse of fertile, well-watered country, surrounded on all sides by snow-capped mountains, and dotted with the rancheros of the hardy pioneer, who has been well repaid for his daring in locating in this far-away but beautiful valley, by its productiveness, and now that the railroad, that greatest of all civilizers, has come, he has abundant opportunities for the disposition of his produce.

In the center of this valley lies Mancos station, which is the junction with the main line of the proposed extension of this road into Arizona.

To the south of Mancos station within a day's drive, and easily accessible, are the ruins of the strange habitations of an extinct and mysterious race known as the Cliff Dwellers. To those seeking curiosities and wonders, the great Cañon of the Mancos, the great Montezuma Valley, the McElmo Cañon, the Lower Animas Valley and the Chaco Cañon are the wonderlands of the world. They contain thousands of homes, and a town of the ancient race of Mound Builders and "Cliff Dwellers," that has attracted the curious ever since the discovery of America. The great Mancos Cañon contains hundreds of these homes which were built and occupied hundreds of years ago. Yet many of them are in a good state of preservation, and in them have been found hundreds of specimens of pottery, and implements of husbandry and warfare. This cañon is twenty miles south of Mancos, over a good wagon road. The cañon is cut through Mesa Verda, a distance of thirty miles, and the walls on either side rise to a perpendicular height of two thousand feet. These cliff dwellings are built in the sides of this cañon, as shown in the illustration. Fifteen miles farther west from the Mancos is situated the great Montezuma Valley, where thousands of fine specimens of pottery have been found among the ruins of that ancient people. On the west side of this valley is the great McElmo Cañon, also full of the ancient homes of the "Cliff Dwellers." Thirty-five miles south of Durango, in the valley of the Animas, are some extensive ruins of the Aztecs, and fifty miles further south are the wonderful ruins in the Chaco Cañon. These ancient Pueblos are, without doubt, the most extensive and the best preserved of any in the United States. Of these Prof. Hayden, in his report of the Geological Survey of the United States for the year 1866, says: "The great ruins in the Chaco Cañon are pre-eminently the finest examples of the works of the unknown builders to be found north of the seat of ancient Aztec Empire in Mexico." There are eleven extensive Pueblos in this cañon, nearly all in a good state of preservation, and their appearance indicates that they were once the home of fifteen hundred to three thousand people each. They are the most accessible from Mancos of any point on the line of railroads. From the thousands of ruins of cities, towns and families found throughout this great San Juan Valley, it is evident that once this great valley was the home of hundreds of thousands of this extinct race. That they were a peaceful and agricultural race of people is evidenced by the large number of their implements of husbandry and specimens of corn and beans found in these ruins, besides irrigating ditches and reservoirs for the storage of water.

SULTAN MOUNTAINS.

Leaving Mancos, the road winds up the sloping sides of a flat-topped mountain, and there on its summit, among huge pines centuries old, bubbles up a clear, cold spring of sparkling water, forming the stream that flows down through the beautiful Lost Cañon, and is called by the unpoetic name of "Lost Cañon Creek."

Lost Cañon is a novelty in itself, as its sides are densely wooded and softly carpeted with a thick bed of moss and leaves, beautifully colored by millions of Colorado wild flowers whose delicate beauty is unrivaled.

Emerging from Lost Cañon the traveler is whirled up to the beautiful valley of the Dolores River, with its many ranches and farms, past the town of the same name. Off to the left, flowing to the eastward, comes bubbling down the mountain side into the larger river, the West Dolores, and no more famous or prolific trout stream exists than this.

Continuing on up the main river, the valley begins to narrow down, until we are once more within the walls of a cañon which takes its name from the stream flowing through it. While this cañon is not particularly deep, its natural beauties are manifold and are sure to make a lasting and delightful impression on the beholder.

Rushing out of the cañon the tourist is now landed at Rico. Rico is one of the most important mining towns of the State, whose mines dot the mountain sides, and whose product is packed in the cars on the backs of the ever-patient and faithful burro, without which no mining camp can be complete. The town is located in what was at one time the crater of a large volcano. Precipitous mountains with poetic names arise upon all sides of it, gradually widening, until by describing a circle of their summits they appear as the top of a huge funnel. Among them is the famous Telescope Mountain, a freak of nature only to be seen to form a proper realization of the aptness of its name. The place has much of historic interest, as evidences of early Spanish discoveries are found on many sides.

Leaving Rico, the line continues up the Dolores, which grows smaller and smaller, until it becomes a mere silver thread winding in and out among huge rocks and boulders. Thirteen miles north of Rico, and after climbing many miles of three and four per cent, grades, the summit of the Lizard Head Pass is reached at an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet. From the summit and to the left will be seen the Lizard Head, a peculiar rock formation capping a tall, bare mountain. This rock derives its name from its resemblance to the head of a mountain lizard, though at the same time it may be said to resemble the shaft of some large monument.

OPHIR LOOP.

Descending the pass through the mountain gorges over rushing mountain streams, one finds one's self at Trout Lake. No more graphic description of this sheet of beautiful blue water can be given than a verse from a poem by "H. H."

"The mountain's wall in the water;It looks like a great blue cup;And the sky looks like anotherTurned over, bottom side up."

"The mountain's wall in the water;

It looks like a great blue cup;

And the sky looks like another

Turned over, bottom side up."

Here the sport-inclined tourist may spend a few days, for the lake is inhabited by thousands and thousands of mountain trout.

Shortly after leaving Trout Lake, the famous Ophir Loop is passed. Here the skill of the engineer was taxed to its utmost, for the track winds in zig-zags down the mountain side, rushing through a deep cut here, over a mountain torrent and a high bridge there, darting around sharp curves, in and out of snowsheds, until on the opposite mountain and high above us is to be seen a line of freshly-turned earth, which the knowing ones say is the track over which we have just passed.

From Vance Junction, a side trip of ten miles, which will well repay the tourist, can be made to Telluride, a mining town of some 2,500 inhabitants, nestling among snow-capped mountains, rising to stupendous heights and rich in gold and silver.

From Vance Junction the journey is continued down the San Miguel River, past Placerville, until the river leaves the rail, and again we commence to go up; this time over the Dallas Divide. This pass resembles Marshall Pass, though not quite so long. After reaching the summit, the line runs down the eastern slope along Leopard Creek, high above it on the mountain side, giving a most magnificent view of the Uncompahgre Range to the south with its gentle slopes softly colored by the deep, dark foliage of dense pine and fir forests, gradually rising until the mountains develop into a huge mass of shattered pinnacles, their topmost points covered with the everlasting snow.

Arriving at Ridgway, a city of some 1,500 inhabitants, the journey is again resumed on the original route via the Denver & Rio Grande.

ILIUM CURVE.

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