The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-09-27

voad We cast orr eyes up to the top
of one of the lone shafts of mOulderIrg
granite. look at what seems at first
sigbt TO be some wild, savage hero
gIvpbics: but more closely scanned We
T3IainTv read-UsE BRAKES PLANTA-
TT0N BITTERs-S-T-1860-X. How
suddenly we are brought back from
our romanclng to the common place
realities of business life.
While the train stops for wood and
water, the passengers, many of them,
are busy IN picking up pieces of gran
tic or quartz, as mementoes Of the To-
cality; but soon the train whistles and
We are off: but not for some time
does the scene change very greatly.
Sherman Is on the range known as
the Black Hills, and is the highest
point en- the Road, but We are yet to
climb over or through the Rocky
Mountain range proper. Before we
do this, however, we descend gradu-
ally a thousand feet and more and
traverse the Laramie Plains, tract
of mountain meadow, seven thousand
| feet above the sea, and about twenty
miles wide by sixty long. 1t Is good
grazing region, and being in the track
| of the old Emigrant Trail, was well
come territory for the weary mountain
travellers in former years.
It was over this high table-laud
about Sherman and along the Laramie
| Plains that the trouble was expert
ence0 with the trains Of the Pacific
Road last Winter by the heavy SHOWS.
The locomotive Is usually able, with
its snow -plows, TO clear off the track
of almost any depth of snow fall; but
the wind piles up the cuts even full
and renders them impossible. The
Company has attempted to provide
against these troubles the coming
winter, by placing snow fences alorg
| all the cuts CT excavations on the
route upon this elevated region, from
/ fifty to one hundred feet from the
track. The sno = drifts against these
fences aud forms a barricade, which
it is expected will protect the excaya-
lions and make the Road passabEe
during the entire Winter; but eXpe-
rience alone will demonstrate their
| utility.
| Most of the days ride yesterday was
devoid of any grand or magnificent
scenery. In the distance to the south
was seen almost all day the COlora-
do snowy range, but 1t was IN the
dim distance. Late in the afternoon
the Medicine Bow Mountains were
passed. their EortheTn spur, Elk
i Mountain, rising 10 a great helghth
above the plain, and constituting a
noted landmark for miles around. A;
we leave the Laramie Plains, we pas:
Carbon Station, where the railroad
company has developed a most valua.
BILE vein of coal, averaging about nine
feet. A shaft is sunk just at the
side Of the track, and the Locomotives
are supplied directly from the mines
The main supplies of coal for the road
both East and West, are drawn from
this place.
just as the sun was setting w
came again into the Valley of the
: North Platte, which was left BY the
{ Railroad four hundred miles to the
east. 1t passes far around to the
north, among the canyons of the
mountains, and here where it is now
crossed by the Road its waters are
nearly four thousand feet higher thar
where the Road crossed it to the east
/, Here is situated Fort Steele, an i'm
portant military station, prettily To-
Gated in a wild valley, surrounded b.
rocky, bluff hills, with the clear
, sparkling mountain waters Of tkC
Platte, dashinR over the broker
rocks and powders below.
> AS night closed in upon US, oul
train, which had descended two thou
sand feet from Sherman, began AGAR
to ascend the Mountains, where i
: reached the altitude of seven thou
sand four hundred feet, and again be
; gan to descend. The scenery Is sale
' to be much the same as that we passeC
. through during daylight, but we vii
be enabled to see it on the return
trip. As this morning, the SECOND
from Omaha, dawned, we were on the
! western slope of the Rocky Noun
: tains, and are halted at Wahsatch Sta
; ton for breakfast, where the keen ap
petite of the traveller is feasted OF
: real mountain trout and other tempt
ing dishes.
The grand scenery Of the Wabsatct
Range, Echo and Weber Canyons, i:
before Us. J. W. F.