[3] The "boiling spring" is the site of Manitou Springs, now a famous watering place, from which millions of bottles of the water are annually shipped. Carbonate of lime composes nine-tenths of the mineral matter in solution. From this point the cogwheel railroad ascends Pike's Peak.—Ed.
[4] Pinus flexilis. N. S.—James.
[5] It is related in Du Pratz's History of Louisiana, p. 71, that in the year 1724, a large tribe of Indians, called Padoucas, resided in several villages on the heads of the Konzas river; that they removed thence to the sources of the Platte: here they are said still to exist. See Brackenridge's Views, p. 147. Lewis and Clarke's Map, &c. But these accounts need confirmation.—James.
Comment by Ed. See volume xiv, note 179.
[6] There is some uncertainty as to the peak which Pike ascended. Dr. Elliott Coues thinks he reached high ground between Mount Rosa and Cheyenne Mountain, approaching from the south. See Pike's Expeditions, pp. 454, 455, notes 46, 47. These peaks are eight or ten miles southeast of Pike's.—Ed.
[7] Notes referring particularly to this grasshopper, and to many other insects, and many other animals, collected on the Platte and about the mountains, were subsequently lost in the robbery committed by three of the soldiers, who deserted from the party in the country of the Osages. It is on this account that the name of the insect alluded to cannot be given, as it is now impossible to identify the specimen.—James.
[8] As late as 1870 the Indians continued to make offerings to the manitou of the springs. There is an Indian legend which accounts for the effervescence and taste of the water as follows: Two hunters having come to the springs, the less successful, in envious anger, seized his rival while drinking, and held his head beneath the water until he expired. Thereupon a vapor arose, and there appeared a spirit who struck the murderer with his war club, dashing his brains into the spring and rendering the waters bitter.—Ed.
[9] The Colorado Midland now ascends Fountain Creek, east and north of the peak, approximating the line of this bison path. The stage road to the peak also ascends this cañon about four miles to Cascade, where it turns west, going around the northern and northwestern slope of the mountain.—Ed.
[10] Boiling Spring (now Fountain) Creek unites with Monument Creek (see preceding volume, note 146) at Colorado Springs, to form Fountain River. The map does not show Boiling Spring Creek, but applies the name to Fountain River and its other branch, Monument Creek, to which it gives an exaggerated length. Fountain River was called La Rivière de la Fontaine qui Bouille (River of the Boiling Spring), from the Manitou springs already described; the French name, in various forms, has generally been preferred to the English. Frémont calls the stream, in more correct French, "Fontaine-qui-bouit," and "Fontaine River" is still sometimes used. The city of Pueblo is situated at its confluence with the Arkansas; Pike called this confluence "grand forks."—Ed.
[11] Lieutenant Swift's trigonometrical measurement of the elevation of Pike's Peak was quite accurate. If to his calculation of 8,507½ feet above the plain the correct elevation of the latter be added, the sum is within a few feet of the now accepted height; but, as in Pike's measurement, the result was invalidated by an erroneous estimate of the height of the plain (3,000 feet instead of about 5,700). The latitude and longitude as calculated for this camp afford another instance showing the error in the observations made by the expedition. The correct figures for Colorado Springs are 38° 49′ 41.67″ north latitude, and 104° 49′ 15.10″ longitude west of Greenwich.—Ed.