Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-16


fruit. save the farOff blackberries aforesaid,
and two or three doubtful grape vines on some
creek a great way back. The prickly pear
very rare and very green, is the only SEM
blance of fruit discovered on the Plains
dwarfish cactus, with its leaves close to the
ground, the Spanish nettle-a sort OF vegetable
porcupine-a profusion of wild sage, wild
NORWOOD, and other such plants, worthless
alike 10 man and beast, relieved by some we'll
gnawed grass in the richer valleys of Winter
water courses 1.-THE fora usually very scanty
and always coarse and poor) such are my
recollections of the 800 miles or so that sepa-
rate the present buffalo range from the creeks
that carry snow-water to the Platte and the
pines that herald our approach to
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
And now all changes, but slowly, gradually.
The cactus, the Spanish nette, the prickly
pear, continue, even into and upon the noun
tains, but the pines, though stunted and at first
scattered, give variety, softness, and beauty,
to the landscape, which becomes more rolling,
with deeper and more frequent valleys, and
water in nearly all of them; the cottonwoods
along the streams no longer skulk behind
bluffs or hide in casual holows you may build
an honest campfire without fear of robbing an
embryo county of its last stick of wood, and
water your mules generously without drying
up some long, pretentious river, and condemn.
ing those who come after you to weary, thirsty
marches through night and day. The cotton
woods, as you near the wind-quelling range of
protecting nights, which rise, rank above
rank, to the westward the more distant still
white-robed with snow, grow large and state
ly-some of them sixty to seventy feet high,
and at least three feet in diameter; the I'M
wooded soil ceases to be desert and becomes
prairie on wave, but still in the main a sandy,
thinly grassed region, which cannot compare
with the prairies of Illinois, of Iowa, or East
ern Kansas. There seems to be as rich and
deep soil in some of the creek bottoms, espe-
cially those of the South Platte as almost any
where; and yet | fear the husbandman is
doomed to find even this belt of grassed and
moderately rolling land, which stretches along
the foot of the mountains to width of per-
haps twenty miles, less tractable and product
i've than fertile. 1t lies at such an elevation
from 5000 to 5000 feet above the ocean level
that though its Winters are said to be moder-
ate, its Springs cannot be early. There was
fall of a foot of snow in this region on the 18th
of May, when ice formed to quarterback
thickness on the Plains; and when Summer
suddenly sets in about the lst of June, there
are hot suns by day, and cool, strong winds
by night with surteit Of petty thunder
squalls, but little or no rain. The gentle rain
of last Thursday in the mountains fell, for
short time, in sheets Just at their teet-say for
breadth of five mies-and there ceased.
Hardly drop fell within five miles west, or
for any distance east of this place, though the
earth was soaked ten miles west of this.
Hence the enterprising few who have com.
menced farms and gardens near this point tell
me that their crops have made no progress for
week or two, and can make none till
they have rain. | trust wheat and rye
will do well here whenever they shall be
allowed a fair chance barley and oats, if SOW
ed very early on deeply-plowed land may do
tolerably; but corn, though it comes up well
and looks rank at present, will hardly ripen
before frost, even should it escape paralysis by
drouth while potatoes, peas, and most vege-
tables, will probably require irrigation or
yield but sparingIy Yet, should the gold
mines justify their present promise, farming,
in the right localities at the base of these
mountains, even by the help of irrigation, will
yield, to those who bring to it the requisite sa
gacity, knowledge and capital, richer rewards
than elsewhere on earth. Everything that can
be grown here will command treble or quad
ripple prices for years and he who produces
anything calculated to diversity and improve
the gross, mountainous diet Of salt pork, hot
bread, beans, and coffee, now necessarily all
but universal in this region will be justly en-
titled to rank with public benefactors.
And the Rocky Mountains, with their
grand aromatic forests, their grassy glades,
their frequent springs and dancing streams of
the brightest, sweetest water, their pure, elias
tic atmosphere, and their unequalled game
aud fish, are destined to be a favorite resort
and home of civilized man. never visited
region where physical life could be more sure
ly prolonged or fully enjoyed. Thousands
who rush hither for gold will rush away again
disappointed and disguised, as thousands have
already done; and yet the gold is in these
mountains, and the right men will gradually
unearth it. | shall not be mistaken if two or
three millions are not taken out this year, and
some ten millions in 1861 though all the time
there will be, as now, stream Of rash adven-
turers heading away from the diggings, de-
claring that there is no gold there, or next to
none. So it was in California and in Austral-
ia so it must be here, where the obstacles to
be overcome are greater and the facilities for
getting home decidedly better. All men are
not fitted by nature for gold-diggers ; yet thou
sands will not realize this until they have been
convinced oft by sore experience. Any good
phrenologist should have been able to tell half
the people who rushed hither so madly during
the last two months that, if these mountains
had been halt made of gold, they never would
get any of it except by minding their own pro-
per business which was quite other than min
ing. And still the long procession is crossing
the Platte and Clear Creek, aud pressing up
the Chill Difficulty" in mad pursuit of gold,
of which not one-ffth will carry back to the
States so much as they brought away. New
leads will doubtless be discovered, new veins
be opened, new "diggings" or districts become
the rage-for it were absurd to suppose that
little ravine known as Gregory's, running to
Clear Creek the sole depository of gold worth
working in this region-and in time the Rocky
Mountains will swarm with hardy, industri-
Gus, energetic, white population. Not gold
alone, but lead, iron, and II think silver or
cobalt, have already been discovered here, and
other valuable minerals doubtless will be as
the mountains are more thoroughly explored
for as yet they have not been even run over.
Those who are now intent ON the immediate
organization and admission of a new State may
be too fast yet | believe the Rocky Mountains
and their immediate vicinity-say between
Fort Laramie on the north, and Taos on the
South-will within three years have white
population Of one hundred thousand, one-half
composed Of men in the full vigor of their
prime, separated by deserts and waste places
from the present States-obliged to rely on
their own resources in any emergency, and
fully able to protect and govern themselves.
Why not let them be State so soon as reason
ably may be 4?
Mining is pursuit akin to fishing and hunt
ing, and, like them, enriches the few at the
cost of the many. This region is doubtless
preordaned to many changes of fortune; to-
day, giddy with the intoxication of success !;
tomorrow in the valley of humiliation. One
day, report will be made on the Missouri by a
party Of disappointed gold-seekers that the
"Rocky Mountain humbug" has exploded and
everybody is fleeing to the States who can
possibly get away; the next report will repre-
sent these diggings as yellow with gold
Neithar will he trup vet each in its turn will