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AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE.

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CROSSING THE RANGE ON SNOW SKATES-SEE ANNEX NO. 32.

Denver and Salt Lake stage road, the tele-
graph marking the line for some distance
along the railroad. On the right hand, the
whole valley has been fenced in for
grazing purposes.

The next station is 41-2 miles, denomi-
nated
. Red Buttes—This locality derived
its name from several ridges and peculiar
formations of sandstone lying between the
railroad and the Black Hills on the right.

Many of these sandstones rear their
peaks from 500 to 1,000 feet above the
plain, apparently worn and washed by the
elements, into wild, fantastic shapes and
grotesque figures. Rocks which, at a dis-
tance, might be taken for castles, rise side
by side with the wall of an immense fort;
churches rear their roofs, almost shading
the lowly cottage by their side; columns,
monuments and pyramids are mixed up
with themselves and each other, as though

some malignant power had carried off

  

some mighty city of the olden time, and,
wearying of his booty, had thrown it down
upon these plains, without much regard
to the order in which the buildings were
placed.

Some few only of these curiosities, can be
seen from the car windows, and those are
not the largest. The tourist, by sere
over a day or two at Laramie, would fin
much of interest in this section of the
country.

The Laramie River rises about 50 miles
to the southwest from Red Buttes, on the
eastern slope of the mountains—its source
being composed of almost innumerable
springs. Its general course is northeast
for 200 miles, when it empties into the
North Platte River at Fort Laramie.

During the building of the road, thou- —
sands of ties were floated down to Lara- |
mie, and thence hauled along the line.

The supply of timber in this region is |
as near inexhaustible as can well be im- |