The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-21
VIRGINIA CITY, NJ. T., Feb. 6, 1867


I could employ my time to no better
advantage than by writing you my i'm
pressions, such as they are, received in
my sojourn in the mountains. People
as rule have very crude ideas what
the Rocky Mountains are like. Indeed,
1 found them in no single particular to
conform to my foreconceived opinion.
expected to find them to consist of a
single chain; but found them to consist
of a great many, running in every con-
ceivable direction, covering, probably,
belt of 600 miles in width, extending
far down towards the Isthmus. Some
of these chains are much higher than
others, more broken and craggy; pre-
senting at many places barriers that
human ingenuity never will overcome.
Between these chains are valleys; some
wide and of exceeding beauty, through
which noble rivers meander, whose
course can be traced in the far distance
by the pOplars that almost invariably
line its banks, until it becomes mere
thread, some narrow and deep, darken-
ed by dense growth of the never
changing pines and furs, the haunt of
the grizzly bear, the mountain tiger,
and over whose rocky bottoms, with
rush and roar, the clear, swiftly flowing
waters accommodating from hundreds of
springs, or from melting snow, find their
way into larger streams below, finally
mingling their beautiful waters with
those of the mighty Mississippi, or OF
the Columbia, the one giving tribute to
the Atlantic the other to the Pacific.
have seen defiles so deep, so narrow,
SO dense with these trees of evergreen,
that the darkness was that OF deep
twilight, and the sun but reached the
rock or earth beneath at intervals.
Some of these valleys are very beau
tiful, particularly the wider ones, with
their terraces, defining a line as straight
as presented by the horizon on glorious
old Lake Erie, and extending for miles
along the foot of the lofty snow-clad
mountains. Inever beheld such beau
tif1l scenery as that afforded by the
valley the Passaman river. Imagina-
ton was not slow in supplying it with
those works of man which would make
it beyond parallel, and which could |
not be exceeded in stately beauty by |
the boosted scenery of old Switzerland. |
Fill valley like this with popu-
lation of Industrious, happy people,
and they would soon produce won
drous change, and one would be car
,ried back unconsciously to the tales Of
klchantment. Lay it off i'll farms with
cir accompanying houses nestled amid
wees, with little towns, their tall
spires pointing heavenward in
Is, which nowhere could be excell-
Ipd you have a picture which the
alton unaided by apersonal view
ot conceive, but which the fu-
II verify. Just think what
hg world in miniature this would
cut off from all the world beside
everlasting, almost impossible bar
Then the magnificent sunsets we of
ten witness, painting the Western sky
with the most gorgeous colorings,
blending their hues most exquisitely,
from the brightest and most radiant, to
the softest and most delicate, until to-
wards the Eastern sky it passes gradu-
ally, imperceptibly almost into a SOM
bre leaden hue, and finally fades from
the enraptured longing gaze, like a
vision blest, making one realize too
fully, his littleness. In summer one is
led to believe that these sunsets are
then grander, till winter comes with it's
mantle of snow to put him in doubt
Strange as it may seem, one is very
apt to be deceived here, mornings, in
the rising Of the sun, in this, that you
mistake the West for the East, for there
the sky is the brightest, there you first
behold evidences OF the approach of the
god of day. Away to the West,
through the clear blue ether, seemingly
many, many scores of miles, you per
celve the extreme tip Of high peak re-
fleet back his golden ray, stealing slow
ly down the snowy side, one by one
according to their attitudes appear, Civ
ing to the view the hundreds of peaks
grandly looming up in their cold white
mantles, until, with unrivaled splendor,
the whole West reflects back its golden
glory. The tongue is held mute in adj
miration until the sun has climbed the
high mountain behind you, and, like
the mist before the rising storm, the
view is rapidly dissipated, and you
stand disenthralled. The sky is so
much purer here that you can easily see
double the distance that you can in the
States. If happening to be on some
elevated spot, it seems as though the
range of vision reached treble the dis
lance. Then you observe the thous-
ands of peaks of all shapes and forms,
white in their spotless beauty, except
ing where covered by the pine and fur,
blackening the distance by contrast
with the snow on every side of you;
and for moment you imagine your
selves among the cleaning tents of a
mighty host of Titans. You see not
the hundreds Of vallies that come within
the range of vision, nor the hundreds
of mountain streams; you see but the
valley at your feet, with it's beautiful
river. Storms rage frequently with
fury in the mountains all day long,
when the valleys remain untouched.
1t first obscures the higher crests, then
steals down the sides, until all is blot
ted out, and you know not there is a
mountain there. Old Erie's shores nev-
er have witnessed such storms. No
living being could withstand the terri
tic icy blasts of some of them, with the
sleety fine snow whirling through the
air so thickly that all is blotted out.
The only salvation when caught in such
q storm is to seek tho friendly sha1tor