Thence onward we pursue our exciting ride, with mountains on either side, by the Needles, Sultan Peak, silver cascades, until soon we reach the Valley of the Animas, and are presently hurled into the wildly weird and awfully sublime Animas Cañon. A very suggestive name was given by the early Spaniards to this stream: Rio de los Animas, signifying the _river of lost souls_, for nothing could be more gruesomely somber. The cañon proper is about fifteen miles long, and lies between Rockwood and Durango, and is a cleavage that separates the San Juan and San Miguel ranges. The walls are perpendicular, and the passage so narrow that the sunlight can hardly get through. The railroad runs along the breast of the solid rock walls, on a ledge or balcony that had to be cut in the sheer escarpment, 1,500 feet above the river, but the top of the frowning enclosure is still 500 feet higher. Sitting at the car window, the traveler looks down into what appears to be an almost bottomless gulch, and sees the beating waters swirling in pools, and tossing in a terrific tumult that fills the cañon with deafening roar. While the river here is a succession of cataracts, there are waterfalls on either side, leaping down from bordering cliffs and joining hands with the impetuous river. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: WEST SIDE OF MARSHALL PASS.—The summit of Marshall Pass has an altitude of 10,852 feet. From this point a magnificent view can be had of the Sangre de Cristo range extending to the southeast. The pass itself is a scenic and scientific wonder; grades of 211 feet to the mile are frequent, and the ascent and descent are made by a series of the most remarkable curves. The streams from the summit flow eastward into the Atlantic and westward into the Pacific. The tracks are so winding that passengers on ascending trains frequently become puzzled, and imagine that they are moving in a circle without a definite purpose, but when the train reaches the top and dashes over the divide, the object of its devious course is revealed, and a feeling of exhilaration succeeds that of doubt and uncertainty as it darts down the opposite side with the swiftness of an eagle. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CALCAREOUS CLIFFS OF GRAND RIVER.]