Spirit of the times. [volume] (Ironton, Ohio) 1853-1858, 1853-11-22
Fran the National Mteiligencer.
CE Y TRIAL ROUT f TO TIL Z
PA C F c.

Mlssns. GALES g. SrAToN---Geaile.
men,: | send you letter just received
from Fort Massachusetts, in the valley
Of San Luis, head of the Rio Grande
Del Norte, which came to me as unex.
pectedly as il it had fallen from the
clouds, and could not have been mIre
acceptable if it had been from any 9th.
cr spot on the globe. 1t is written by a
Virginia emigrant TO California-one
who had been there before, and now
made one of a party of omlsrants all re-,
moving, and taking with them large
herds of sheep and some cattle for the
California market. They travelled up.
on the line which Beale and Heap DIES
cribed, and confirm all they said by the
actual fact Of the easy travelling Of their
wagons, and the condition Of their
sheep and cattle, "about as fat as any
in the Philadelphia or Baltimore mar.
ket;" and that after travelling upwards
of one thousand miles from Illinois, ant!
seven hundred OF it from the Missouri
frontier. The country is rich and beau.
tifnl and the Valley of San Luis and
the mountain grass all that Leroux and
Fremont described it to be. Only think
of that grass-thick as meadow to the
top of the mountains, and many acles
good for four moved tuns-anI plenty
all the winter to sustain stock without
food or shelter. The letter is exactly
such a one as | would wish to get-a
plain statement of what was actually
seen by an emigrating company, NOV.
ing in body, without any system OF
theory to establish, and looking for the
best way to get to California.
The pass which they mention, through
which Capt. Gunnison went, is one O.
fuc in the Sierre Blanca leading from
the Arkansas Plains into the Valley o.
San Luis-,hree of which are excellent
and one Of them higher up. and from 7t
to 80 miles nearer than the other two
by being more in the straight line to the
Coo cha tope in the Rocky Mountains
or the Camera which is near it, and
nearly as good. Instead OF no passes ir
these mountains, there are multplici
ty of them-so many AMI so good tha
the traveller has choice in the variety
and is only puzzled to decide which is
best.
Fort Massac chusetts, where this lcttel
is dated, is just at the spot where Ere
mont was turned out of the ralley by
his guide, in the winter ofls4s and 40
and when he found the pass almos
without snow, through which the Utah.
passed from the Del Norte to the Arkan
sas, and which was so level that h'
could only by careful observation detec
the point of the dividing waters.
In brief, Messrs. Editors, now fee
emboldened to repeat what Fremont ha
often told me, thati the central part o
the Rocky Mountains, Covering th'
Three Parks, the head waters Of tn
South Platte, the Arkansas and the De
Norte, and the headwaters Of the Eas
Fork ofthe Great Colorado Of the West,
exactly in the line from ST. Louis to Sal
Francisco, and about half way betweel
them, there is good country enough t.
make a mountain State double the siz
Of all the Swiss Cantons put together
and presenting everything grand an
beautiful TO be found in Switzerland
without the drawback Of glaciers an
avalanchss, and. consequently withou
its cold. Hs has gone to verify his wi,'