The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THMI SDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 17, 1868.

7HE COUNTRY OF 7HE PACIFIC RAIL-

ROAD.

(From the Anglo -American Times.)

The interest excited in America—indeed through-
out the civilized world—by the Pacific Railway
has induced during the vacation the travel of states-
men and editors in that direction. In consequence
the American papers are filled with information
about the line, and the country it passes through.
Grant and Sherman, with their party, Colfax and
Governor Bross, with their party, and Blair, who is
one of the three commissioners deputed by Govern-
ment to superintend the construction, have all found
their way to the Rocky Mountains. We propose to
cull what we can to give our readers a correct
impression of the country between Omaha and Salt
Lake City. On the right bank of the Missouri
stands Omaha City, and opposite, on the left bank,
is Council Bluffs. The river there divides the Slate of
lowa from the territory of Nebraska, but the two
towns will shortly be connected by a bridge. The
population of Council Bluffs is 8,000, and the town
lies mainly back from the river on the Bluffs in beau-
tiful and wooded ravines, while the newer portion
stands by the river on the bottom lands in which
the railways centre. Omaha rises directly from
the river, and it now contains a population exactly
double that of Council Bluffs. For the first 150
miles or so west the country is undulating prairie,
well watered, fertile, and with a good equable
climate. Then the roll of the prairie ceases, and
the plains begin, formerly, but erroneously, called
the American Desert; water and timber are scantier,
but there is abundant pasturage for flocks and
herds, and in places wheat may be grown with-
out artificial irrigation. At North Platte, 291
miles from Omaha, the road crosses the river
on a bridge 3,000 feet long. At Cheyenne (pro-
nounced shayan), 516 miles from Omaha, the so-
called plain ends aud the mountain region commences.
The town, which consists of 4,000 inhabitants,
though its first tent was only pitched July 13, 1867,
stands 6,000 feet above the sea level. So gradual
and imperceptible is the rise that Omaha is in truth
the base of the Rocky Mountains, though many
hundreds of miles distant from their summit. Be-
tween that city and Cheyenne there are three de-
pots, with engine-houses and shops. The first is
Grand Island, 153 miles from Omaha ; North Platte,
291 ; and Sydney, 414 miles. From Cheyenne
there are two further in advance :—Laramie 572, and
Creston, which marks the highest point the road
.touches in the Rocky Mountains, where the water
begins to fall to the Pacific side, 738 miles. Green
River is 101 miles further, and to this stream the
road will be finished by the end of this month
(September). Twenty-five miles further, at a place
called Harris's Fork, the line will branch for the
Montana territory, and from that spot Salt Lake
City is distant but 162 miles. These figures show
that Salt Lake City is 1,026 miles from Omaha,
and as Cheyenne is 516, it marks the Half-Way-
Station. West from Cheyenne the road ascends
the Black Hills, the foot range of the Rocky Moun-
tains reaching Sherman in 32 miles, the highest
point touched from the Missouri to the junc-
tion with the Central Pacific, for although but
a foot range the pass is at a greater altitude
than at the Rocky Mountains. The atmosphere is
brilliant, rarefied, exhilarating and clear to an asto-
nishingdegree. Before the traveller are the strange
peaks of the Black Hills, rising in curiously fashioned
outline. Here, like the ruins of a fort ; there, as if
on the crest stood a town ; again, spread out against
the sky, the outline of a steamer. The colour is a
rich black ; at one place whitened with snow and
at others sprinkled, while down in the valleys the
grass grows green and the pasture is dotted with
flowers. Streams flow through them ; and though
the plains are bare of timber, the foliage of trees rustles
on the mountain sides. The bright pure water is
broken by the splash of trout, and deer and antelope
bound over the open expanse. Grouse rise from the
cover, and wild mountain sheep graze on the slopes.
Once the mountains must have barred the road
like a wall, but the feldspar and granite have dis-
integrated into fine gravel, opening broad canons,
which form a natural path with the finest possible
railway bed, as if designed by nature to forward the
interests of the line. While such is the aspect of
the country before and around, away south rise
in grandeur the mountains of Colorado, 14,000 feet
above the sea level, and glittering for many thou-
sands in a mantle of snow. Though they look but
50 miles distant, they are, in truth, over 150. To
the right a chain of dark hills bounds the view,
and when Sherman is passed, the traveller gazes at
the Sierras of the Rocky Mountains over the real
desert. Just beyond the crossing of the northern-
most branch of the North Platte this desert begins.
Its hue is ashy without a tree or even a blade of
grass, and covered with a delicate poisonous dust.
thrives. The " Bitter
Creek" the c
oi
aAel
dkali w hieteLe gnnets r
y mb
soil,tbhueseh e and makes bitter the water,
nal
eye s
the Rocky Mountain
range, extending 150 miles; and although the eye
everywhere rests on snowy sierras, the country over
which the line here passes is in the highest degree
uninteresting. It ends on the other slope where
the traveller reaches Green river, the main branch
of the
Colorado.
of describing to have an early op-
portunitycountry between that
river and Salt Lake city,
hopethe
but for the present
We
we prefer giving a sketch of the towns grow-
ing up en route. Of these Cheyenne and
Laramie are the most considerable. The former
has 400 shanties, of which one out of every five is
" a saloon, a dancing-house, or a hell." There are
two churches and one school-house ; and, what
may well surprise European readers, three daily
newspapers. There is a mayor and a board of
aldermen, and, more necessary still—a vigilance
committee. Fort Russell is three miles from the
city, and a lake is near with banks 50 feet high and
several boiling springs. Thirty miles to the north
there is a mountain composed of magnetic iron, and
12 miles south-west is another bed of red iron ore.
Coal also exists, and is used in the town and on the
rail. George Francis Train laid the foundation in
Cheyenne of a grand hotel, which is still un-
finished. Doubts exist of the stability of the
town, and although the railway people incline we
believe to its maintenance, it is still an open ques-
tion to be determined when the branch road to
Denver is settled. Julesburgh was list year re-
ported to be a prosperous city ; this year unless the
conductor pointed out the site the traveller would
be wholly unaware that he was passing a locality
whereon a town once stood. It has moved west,
and perhaps a large portion of it might now be
found at Benton, the present head of the line close
on 790 miles from Omaha, and situated in the
desert. There, over 1,500 persons are gathered in
tents and board shanties, of whom the railroad
employs between 100 and 200, and of the rest the
great bulk run restaurants and saloons, " loaf,"
and speculate, or keep cheap stores. The locality
is adapted for the society of Benton, both being
most detestable. The white poisonous dust of the
desert penetrates everywhere, and wherever it pene-
trates is unmitigated vice. The town moves with the
railway, which is now 44 miles beyond it, and shortly
it will be transferred to Green River, and the pro-
bability is that it will remain during the winter at
Harris's Fork, 25 miles still further on. Were it
not ,for this constant change of site it would perish
from the impurities generated. Coming into a
fresh locality, it leaves behind it an aggregate
amount of offensiveness for nature to purify, conta-
minating the country at wide intervals. Such a com-
munity would rot, and breed a pestilence if long de-
tained, and the more frequent the change the batter for
the railway people, who charge from $5OO to $l,OOO
fora building lot, which in one or two months will
be useless. The site of Benton alone yielded them
from $30,000 to $lO,OOO. The editor or correspon-
dent who finds himself in a car of the Union Pacific
Railway has no right to grumble at his treatment.
The train carries a cook, three waiters, a dinner
service, plenty of provisions, and three meals a day
are supplied. At night he has a comfortable cur-
tained bed, with clean sheets, but nothing can keep
out the dust, and if the window be left open the
traveller emerges in a thick coating of alkali cry-
stals and road dust. The lodging and boarding
houses of the labourers working at the head of the
line keep pace with the track. In their rear is a
long train with kitchen and dining room, lodging