Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1872, by

JOHN H. TICE,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

This volume contains the result of personal observations made in Kansas and Colorado in the Summer of 1871. By a resolution adopted by the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, it was determimed in a body and in their official capacity, to take an excursion through Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and if found practicable, to Utah. The object was to gain information by personal observation, of the natural resources and agricultural capabilities of the great Plains and of the mountain territories, to ascertain the state of the branches of industry to which they were adapted, the character of the soil and climate, the mode of culture, and the probable extent to which they would be dependent upon other sections for supplies especially agricultural products. An invitation was extended to the Kansas State Agricultural Society, to join us in the excursion, which was cordially accepted. To the liberality of the North Missouri, the Kansas Pacific, the Colorado Central, the Denver Pacific and the Boulder Valley railroads we are indebted for free passes in going and returning over their roads; and for which they will please accept the most grateful and cordial thanks of the whole party.

During the excursion, I took full notes of everything that fell under my observation, and also of facts elicited from conversations with those familiar with the Mountains; not with the remotest intention however, of perpetrating the infliction of a book upon the patient public, but for my own gratification and satisfaction.

After my return home, I wrote out a few pages of the notes for the Sunday number of one of our leading dailies.

These were so favorably received, and excited so much interest, as to draw upon me scores of letters from all parts of the country where these sketches found their way. Some of these were from persons familiar with the scenes described, thanking me for the gratification the reading of my notes afforded them in reviving the recollections of the sublime and grand scenery of these matchless Mountains, and of enabling them mentally to renew the wild enjoyments, excitements and pleasures of a rude mining life. Other letters were from parties having various objects in view; some from those desirous of seeking new homes; some from those seeking investments, or solicitous of engaging in new enterprizes, and others from invalids, borne down by disease, anxious to know if a cure, or an amelioration of their infirmities would not be effected by a sojourn in the delightful and salubrious climate of the Mountains. All these wanted full and definite information on the points in which they felt interested.

The number of these letters, and the intense anxiety the writers expressed for accurate information, first suggested the idea of writing out the notes in full and publishing them in book form.

I have endeavored to meet the expectations and gratify the desires of all these questioners, as far as my observations extended. Moreover, I have endeavored to supply a want much needed by pleasure seckers, by making known the variety, extent, grandeur and sublimity of the matchless scenery of these gigantic Mountains. There is a large and increasing class who have the means and leisure to spend the hot summer months in fleeing to cooler localities for relaxation, recreation and recuperation. Many, but they are not the lovers and admirers of Nature, go to the seashore, or some fashionable watering place, where they pass through the same routine of inane amusements and frivolous excitements day after day and year after year; and return home without their minds enlarged by acquired knowledge, their sentiments refined, their taste for the

grand and the beautiful quickened, or even their bodies invigorated. Yea, worse than that, positively damaged physically, socially and morally, by being irremediably inoculated with the virus of the frivolities, follies and vices of fashionable life; not only mind, heart and taste infected and perverted, but wasteful and expensive habits contracted. These "like Ephraim, are joined to their idols," and must be let alone. But there are those who are not yet drawn into the vortex of the maelstrom of fashion. To these it will be doing a good office and a grateful service, to direct their attention to the untrodden and as yet unfashionable routes of pleasure seekers in these wild, picturesque and indescribably grand and lofty Mountains, where in silence and solitude they can hold communion with Nature in her most awful, sublime, majestic and imposing forms; and whence they will return home with their thoughts enlarged, their affections ennobled, their sentiments elevated, their taste refined and their bodies invigorated, moreover, with lighter and kinder hearts and heavier purses. Aye, go upon the mountains as Moses did, and God will appear unto you and converse with you face to face. His laws and commandments there written on stones, will be transcribed and engraven on your hearts; and you, like the Hebrew Lawgiver, will also return to your friends with an overflowing heart and a shining face.

OVER THE PLAINS AND ON THE MOUNTAINS.

CHAPTER I.

On the evening of the fifth of June we set out on our journey on board of the evening Express train of the North Missouri Railroad. The day had been intensely sultry, and a lowering sky in the West indicated the approach of a storm. The air seemed stagnant; for not a breeze was stirring; and the heat was sweltering and oppressive. Glad were we, when the train commenced moving us through the air, relieving us from the smothering ef fects of heat, it having the same cooling effect as a wind would have of a velocity of twenty-five miles per hour. We were therefore soon quite comfortable, which together with the novelty of our situation, starting out to experience a new sensation, contributed to raise our animal spirits, and we became as cheerful and vivacious a crowd as ever had cast dull care aside; and had set out to test how much relish and enjoyment, new and strange scenes would add to pleasure. Clear of the mephitic city air, and through the bluffs, we were soon flying through the beautiful Florissant (pronounced Florissaw) Valley, the Arcadia of Missouri. At dusk we came to a halt at the end of the bridge opposite St. Charles, which spans the muddy and turbulent Missouri here. A moment and we are in motion again, but slowly and cautiously we move over the immense iron structure; already a new sensation for the completion of the structure had only been celebrated a few days previously. Then there was still lingering a vague feeling