lay on each side of the course, but this sudden storm gave
fresh obstruction. Men were detailed to clear away the encumbrance, so
as to get the train clear up to the adjacent summit; but as they were
thus engaged in front, the snow-storm was rapidly filling in the track
behind. It was fortunately observed that the dreadful possibility of
being snowed up on that bleak height, was imminent; so all hands were
called away from further effort to get farther on, and a speedy retreat
was made to safety and a lower level, where snow was not. Our merry
party had a good snow-balling time, while all this was going on, and
did not know, until their return, the fearful possibilities from which
they had escaped.

The view from Pike's Peak toward the east is magnificent. The memory of
it will never leave me, as I saw it years ago. The vast plain of Kansas
stretches out, more sublime even than the ocean. One can mark the
winding water courses, by the trees which line their banks; and the
dimness, which covers all the great distance, has a sublime effect.

As I descended in the cog train, a furious thunder-storm blotted all
the landscape from the view; but soon the converging lines of the
mountains became visible, the sun shone out once more from the west,
and that great plain was spanned with a double rainbow, so huge, so
brilliant, so all-embracing, that its like could not easily be seen,
except under similar conditions, and those would be hard to match. It
was the most splendid spectacle I have ever beheld.

We had two days at Colorado Springs and vicinity, and enjoyed to the
full the charm of our situation at Manitou, where our good car
"Lucania" again found a pleasant anchorage.

The mineral springs at Manitou, are of iron and soda. They are now all
tamed and chained to commerce; and the place, in the season (we were
too early for it), is a scene of excursions, and merry-makings, and all
that kind of life which delights in shows and curio shops, and
restaurants at all prices.

How sacred a place it must have been to the wild children of the
mountain and the plain, as they sought its mystic retreat, for the sake
of its healing waters, and its strange, sparkling streams! It was for
them, indeed, from Manitou, the Great Spirit.

From the parching drought of the burning summer sun, or the ice-bound
cold of winter, they could enter here, at any time, and find
refreshment for their thirst, and healing for their wounds.

There su