the first plateau of the great
plains, but is surrounded on three sides by a semi-circle of hills.
Immediately to the west is the great mountain of Pike's Peak, 8000
feet above it and to the summit on an air-line ten miles distant from
this the shoulders spread, to the south-west, terminating abruptly in
a much smaller but very picturesque mountain named Chiann, while to
the north they merge into a spur called the Divide, which melts away
eastward into the rolling prairie, first throwing off, some four
miles to the east, another spur, this breaking into the irregular
shapes of bluffs curves towards the south, extending the shelter
that the mountains on the west afford sufficiently to break the force
of wind from the north-east, and leaving the plateau open to the
plains in its southern and south-easterly aspects.

"The barriers from the wind and weather that this semi-circle just
described affords, being an average distance of four miles from the
edge of the plateau upon which the town is spread, do not detract
from its openness or free exposure to the sun. The Peak lying to the
west robs it of the direct effect of the last beams in setting but
gives a longer twilight than is usual on this continent. The value of
this semi-circle as a protection from storms is especially in the
attraction it affords to the clouds that form upon the Peak, drawing
the storms along its ridges to the north-east on one side or the
south-west on the other, and thus frequently leaving the plateau free
from the rain or snow that forms upon the mountains."

Again he thus remarks on the soil, the drainage, and the
water-supply, all of them so important in a sanitary point of view.

"There is a top soil of about two feet, below which sand and gravel
are found to an average depth of sixty feet, when a clay bed is
struck which follows the slope of the surface and the fall of the
water-shed to the south. The soil, therefore, is naturally absolutely
dry beyond what little moisture the top soil can hold to feed the
grass, and with as perfect drainage as could be devised.

"The drainage is into leaching pits which have ventilating pipes in
them and in the connecting soil pipes. As no water is taken from the
soil and the ground is extremely dry and porous, this system works
without danger. The smaller and older houses, however, mostly have
earth-closets.

"Irrigating ditches supply the lawns and trees with water, and are
further supplemented by tha