WESTERN INCIDENTS. 13

the regularly travelled road some miles further south ;
and made our first halt at Golden City, fourteen miles
from Denver. This place is most beautiful for situation ;
and should have been the great commercial city for the
mining interests of this portion of Colorado. But Den-
ver, during the Cherry Creek excitement years ago,
obtained a long distance the start of it, and will, from
present appearances, retain the advantage. Here we
found iron-ore, coal and fire-clay in abundance, all which
will, sooner or later, be turned to good account.

GETTING INTO THE MOUNTAINS.

It being impossible to follow further up the Valley of
Clear Creek,.on account of the intervening caiion extend-
ing some twelve or fifteen miles in our proper direction,
we were obliged to make a detour to the south, and enter
the next range through a less formidable gorge, up which
avery good road had been made in the direction of Idaho
and Empire Cities. We stopped an hour for a very good
dinner at the Genessee Ranch, where we were overtaken
by our very intelligent and eccentric friend Wolfe, whose
acquaintance we had made at Denver, and who was
wending his way to his mines in the mountains with a
load of enormous cabbages, turnips, water, musk and
other melons, the products of his large and well-cultiva-
ted Ranch on Clear Creek, near Denver. After regaling
us for dessert with one of his finest melons, Mr. Wolfe
opened to us his plans of a new process for separating
the precious metals from the quartz; and also his theory
for the extinction of cholera; all which, it is needless to
say, met with our unqualified approbation.