COLORADO (ante), named from the Colorado river, meaning" red water." It is the the 38th and youngest of the states of the American union, admitted Aug. 1, 1876. It is bounded by arbitrary lines of lat. and long., 37° to 40° n. and 102° to 109° w., being about 280 to 380 m., and estimated to contain 106,400 sq. miles. It is n. of New Mexico, and e. of Utah, s. of Wyoming and Nebraska, and w. of Nebraska and Kansas, and lies on both sides of the Rocky mountarus, on the head waters of the Platte and the Arkansas running c., of the Rio Grande del Norte going s., and the Colorado running west. Thus C. forms a conspicuousportion of the great mountain water-shed of the continent. The source of the Platte at Montgomery is 11,176 ft. above tide, and its fall in the short distance to Denver is 6,000 feet. The Arkansas rises 10,176 ft. above the sea, and rapidly falls to 7,877, in one place passing through a'7..afion with walls of 1000 to 1500 feet.. The Rio Grande del Norte rises in the Sawatch (Sp, Sagnache) range (a continuation of the Sierra Madre of Mexico), flows through San Luis Park into ew Mexico, and forms the boundary between Mexico and the United States below El Paso, about 32°. The largest of the head streams of the Colorado are the Bear, White, Bunkara, Gunnison, San Miguel, and. Dolores. None of these streams are navigable. The only lake in C. of any consequence is that of San Luis, in the s. part of the state; about 60 m. long, with a quarter of that width. This lake receives nearly 20 streams of various sizes, but has no visible outlet. It lies in a highly picturesque region in the center of San Luis Park.
C. is traversed from n. to s. by the Rocky mountain chain, known by various names according to locstion or direction. The Sawatch range is a mass of solid granite aver aging 13,000 ft. high, and presents a bold and conspicuous outline. The width of this range is from 15 to 20 miles. Among the peaks, somewhat closely grouped, are Bowles, 14,106 ft.; Howard, 14,208; La Plata, 14,126; Elbert, 14,150, and Grizzly peak, 13,786; Massive mountain, 14,192. The range is then comparatively low for 18 m. to the n., but again rises in the terminal peak of the Holy Cross (13,478 ft.), so named because the snow in the ravines near the summit presents that figure to the eye. The Elk mountains strike off from the Sawatch range in a s.w. direction for 30 m., and are interesting to geologists for the remarkable displacement of strata of which they are composed and the apparent 1..onfusion to which this condition has given rise. The more noteworthy
peaks aro Italian mountain (13,431 ft.), so named because it shows the colors of Italy— red, white, and green; White rock, 13,847; Teealli, 13,274; Crested 'Butte, 12,014; Gothic, 12,491; Snow Mass, 13,961; Mai-oon, 19,000; Castle peak. 14,106; Capitol, 13,99;2; White House, 14,000; and 'Sopris, 12,972. Of less importance are the Uncom• paghre in the s.w., the Raton in the s., and the Wet mount in the s.e. The eastern moun tains which abut on the region of the plains are called the Front range. These moun tains rising along the border line present in their rough and precipitous faces the strong, bold outlines produced by the metamorphic rocks, the granite, gneiss, and the shists, while the sedimentary rocks at their bases—the limestones, shales, slates, clays and chiefly sandstones—present a different appearance. These sedimentary rocks at their point of contact with the granites are not horizontal, but have been turned up on end by the force exerted by the granite mass against which they were deposited, when it lifted them to their present positions. Their slope to the e. from this point is nowhere more than GO'. They form the basis of the great plain, and were once the bed of the sea, which, on receding, left those thousands of feet of sediment to be carved out and carried off by the ice and water, which have left such wonderful traces of their power. The first feature of the lowlands is the low series of hills of a very even line of elevation, forming a sort of horizon or belt near the foot of the mountains, cut at intervals by the streams which descend from the hills. The ends of these hills that overlook the streams, being afterwards rounded, give each section a long, gently curved line at its upper surface, which has earned for them the name of "hogbacks." They seem to be a natural boundary line between the two geological systems here brought together. It is now believed that the sedimentary rocks, the eras of which are now exposed to view along the eastern side of this valley, must have extended very much farther into the mountains, and that after the elevation of the mass they were partly removed by erosion. The thickness of these layers is given by Dr. Hayden's sur veys at 7,000 feet.