This ridge is separated
from the higher mass of hills within by a valley one to three miles in
breadth, which is known as the Red Valley, from its brick-red soil, or
the 'race course,' which name was given it by the Indians because of its
open and smooth character, affording easy and rapid passage around the
Hills. The junction of the outer base of the Hills with the surrounding
table lands has an altitude of three thousand, five hundred to four
thousand feet. Within this Red Valley one gradually ascends the outer
slope of the Hills and soon enters, at an altitude of four thousand five
hundred or five thousand feet, the woody portion of the region. This
outer slope varies greatly in width and is underlaid by older
sedimentary rocks, cut in almost every direction by narrow deep canons.
This feature covers nearly the whole of the western half of the Hills
proper, where erosion has been less active on account of its distance
from the main channels of drainage. Usually, from the broken interior
edge of this slope or sedimentary plateau one descends a bluff or
escarpment, and enters the central area of slates, granite, and
quartzites, which is carved into high ridges and sharp peaks cut by many
narrow and deep valleys and ravines and generally thickly timbered with
the common pine of the Rocky Mountains.
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