The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-16

THE construction Of the Union Pacific Railroad
TO the Rocky Mountains has rendered that
great backbone Of the continent accessible by
afew days travel, and although It has not yet
been popularized a. q summer resort, we have
little doubt that thousands Of American citi-
Eens will visit IL in succeeding seasons. 1t is
Supposed that when the Pacific Railway Is COM
pleted passengers who leave Philadelphia after
breakfast on Monday morning OF any week
will arrive In San Francisco in tim Q
to take their tea on the following Saturday,
and in this journey the Rocky Mountains
would be reached some time during Thursday.
At present there are but few hotels erected for
the accommodation of tourists, bat Is is an
nounced that this want will soon be supplied
by the Union Pacific Company, and In advance
of the general movement of fashio nabls travel
westward 1t is significant to note the state.
ment that this year the officers OF the Railway
Company, with their families, intend to SO
journ among the lofty heights of the Sierra
Madre during the summer months, that
General Grant and his family are about to
take trip in the same direction, as well as
both the candidates for ce-President, Colfax
and Blair, and various parties of prominent
excursionists, including number of railway
officials, and the representatives of the press
of the Eastern cities, whose departure was
recently announced.
There is growing admiration for the beauti-
full and grand in nature, and an increasing
desire to enlarge the list of convenient and
interesting summer jaunts, that will find
ample qualification in the grandeur Of the
Rocky Mountains. With their northern and
southern connections they form the longest
mountain chain on the globe, and the most
majestic. The Indians formerly applied to
them the poetic title of "The crest of the
world" and this Is not altogether a fanciful
appellation. The Andes, which traverse the
whole length of South America, bifuroate after
they cross the Isthmus of Darien to enter
this continent, and while one great chain
closely hugs the Pacific coast under the
name of the Sierra Nevada Cor Snowy
Mountains) in Mexico and California aud the
Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washing
ton, the main chain treads eastward, and is
designated below its entrance into the bouu-
daries of this country as the Sierra Madre.
There is special significance in this Spanish
title of our great mountain chain. Sierra is
derived from Serra, the Latin word for saw,
and is used to indicate their serrated appear
ance. When they stand out clearly and we'll
defined against the horizon, continuous sue
cession of peaks give to them an aspect similar
to the teeth of well-worn saw of the grandest
possible dimensions, as these teeth consist of
,1o - oI1xx
ridge to height of from twelve to fourteen or
fifteen thousand feet. 'Madre," meaning
"mother," probably has references to the many
rivers flowing from the sides of this great
crest, which is the source of the mightiest
streams Of the earth, including the Amazon in
South America, and the Missouri, the Rio
GrAnde, the Colorado, the Arkansas, and the
Columbia, in the United States. The Rocky
Mountains are the continuation of the Andes,
of South America and the Sierra Madre, of
Mexico, extending far northward towards the
Arctic Ocean, and forming throughout
their whole length the dividing line
of the waters tributary to the Atlantic and the
Pacific Oceans. The plains, which lie to the
eastward, constitute an immense inclined
plane, gradually leading up from the low alti-
ude of the basin of the Mississippi, to the base
of the mountains at an altitude OF about five
thousand feet, from which the lofty heights of
the Sierra rises in majestic grandeur. The
most accurate descriptions and the most beau.
tiful paintings can convey only feeble reflex
of the deep impression they make upon all
who witness their ublimity. They combine
in endless variety all the characteristics that
mountains can possess except Gin the latitude
of the United States), volcanoes and glaciers,
but they have, at former periods possessed
even these, and do not, at this time, lack any
desirable element of picturesque beauty. Dill
gent explorations have always been rewarded
with the discovery of valuable mineral tres-
sures, and there are great number of spe-
cially beautiful retreats where the variety of
vegetation, and the existence of mineral springs
will enable enterprisiDg proprietors of water
ing-place establishments to concentrate an ire
sistible array of attractions. One fair glance
at the scenery of the Rocky Mountains will, of
itself, well repay visit, for it infinitely ex-
ceeds anything that can be afforded by the
contracted landscapes of the eastern portions
of the continent.