The Arkansas banner., 1843-12-02
From the PhiZndeLnbin chronicIe.

i -Ae have generally thought of the Rocky
 Mountains as some nearly impenetrable bar Tier between civilization and the wilderness
 frozen horror, defying the efforts of man
 to everleap, and standing frowning at the on-
 rushing tide of civilization, in the midst of
 solitude too appalling to be sublime, and
 which was never to be broken. All these
 foolish ideas, however, are to be dissipated-
 the bug-bear Is to odisappear. Recent discove-
 rles have disclosed the agreeable fact that
 there Is little difficulty in passing the Rocky
 Mountains, and that the obstacles to be sur
 mounted dwindle to insignifcance when com
 pared to those once existing in regard to the
 Alleghanies-whose once-deemed impenetra-
 ble tastnesses are now pierced in every direc-
 ton by railroads and canals, annihilating. as
 It were, not only space and time, but grind ing to powder beneath the feet the giant mountains, with their peaks covered with eternal snow. After reading the following account of the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, extracted from the official report of Lieut.. Fremont, made to the Senate of the United States, the mind is involuntarily filled with new and vast ideas. It IS very Impor- tant at this particular moment, when the question of extending the limits of our ex treme southern boundary Is occupying so large a share of public attention The nine teenth century will set upon whole continent peopled by freemen:
 ''About six miles from our encampment brought us to the summit. The ascent had been so gradual, that, with all the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, who had made this country his home for seventeen years, we were obliged to watch very closely to find the place at which we had reached the eliminating point. This was between two low hills, rising on either hand fifty or sixty feet. When 1 looked back at them from the spot of the immediate slope on the western plain, their summits appeared to be about one hundred and twenty feet above.- From the impression on my mind at this time, and subsequently on our return, I should compare the elevation which we surmounted immediately at the Pass, to the ascent of the Capitol hill from the avenue, at Washington. It Is difficult for me to fix positively the breadth of this Pass. From the broken ground where 1t commences, at the foot of the Wind River chain, the view to the south east Is over champaign country, broken, at the distance of nineteen miles, by the Table Rock, which, with the other isolated hills in its vicinity, seemed to stand on a comparative plain. This l judge to be its termination, the right recovering its rugged character with the Table Rock. It will be seen that 1t in no manner resembles the places to which the term Is commonly applied-nothing of the gorge-lllSe character, and winding ascents of the Alleghany passes in America-nothing of the Great St. Bernard and Simplon passes in Europe. Approaching 1t from the mouth of the Sweet Water, a sandy plain one hun- dred and twenty miles long, conducts, by a gradual and regular ascent, to the. summit, about seven thousand feet above the sea; and the traveller, without being reminded of any change by toilsome ascents, suddenly finds himself on the waters which flow to the Pacific ocean. By the route we had travelled, the distance from Fort Laramine Is three hun- dred and twenty miles, or nine hundred and fifty from the mouth of the Kansas
 One other matter we have forgotten to mention, regarding the South Pass Its lati- tude is 42 deg. p min. l5 sec north, which places 1t thirty miles within the limits of the United States, andaccording to the Missourian. ''nearly in the direct line of communication from the frontiers of Missouri to the valley of the Columbia The ascertainment of this important fact secures the South Pass to LIS forever, and gives an easy carriage road across our continent from the Western States to the Oregon.n