New-York tribune., 1869-06-26
THROUGH TO THE PACIFIC.


CIFIc SHOPS AND EQUIPMENT-THE THROUGH
TIME TABLE-COMTORT AND SAFETY OF TIE
TRIP.
rFRoM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
SAN Francisco June l5--PromontOry Is neither
uity nor solitude, neither camp nor settlement LUIS
biyouac without comfort, it is delay without rest
It's sun that scorches and akali dust that blinds
it's vile whisky. vile cigars petty gambling, and
stale newspapers at 25 cents apiece. 1t would drive
Amorbid mind to suicide. 1t is 30 tents upon the
Great Sahara sans trees sans water, sans comfort,
sans everything
In this horrible place were we detained from in
the morning until in the afternoon. The negectO OF
the Central Pacific to make a close connection here
will shortly be remedied but it was nexcusable for
asingle week Gen. Dodge, and S. s. Montague, the
Chief Engineers Of the two lines, now examining
the strip of road between Promontory and Ogden
(63 miles, 10 ascertain its cost that the Central fa
cifc may pay the Union Pacific, which built IT, anu
take possession of it, The real bone Of contention
has been the Utah and Montana trade with ogdeh
for the point of junction the Central can take al tno
business which is starting westward, ana the Union
ALI that is starting eastward, without suDlecting
either 10 transfer from one road to the Other'
As the Central has been completed months carrier
tbo 80 o0ners expected its full complement of pas
nenger coaches is not yet received. But we had the
good fortune to find sleeping-car at Promontory'
the second that ever passed over the hne. tWas
built at Wilmington Del, and is owned and rum not
bv separate corporation but by the Railroad Com
many. AT nearly every station through to Sacra-
mento the people, attracted by its novelty crowded
ND to its doors and windows eager to inspect It, and
prompt to exclaim, Isn't it gayP That beats the
Worldp We found it smoOth-running and comfort
able n vast improvement upon day coaches, but lar
inferior to PullmanIs.
We passed hosts of Cinnamon, shortening
curves and ballasting the track. Nearly 4,OOo are
stll employed in peTfecting the road. They are all
young and their faces look sngularly quick ana ln
tellipent few wear basket hats but all have SUD-
Stituted boots for their wooden shoes and adopted
rantaloons and blouses They receive $S5 per month
igod and board themselves. OF this they save from
400 TO s23 The Union Pacific Company, which ls
paving its aborers per day (currency is about to
employ the Chinese along its entire line. They are
tractable patient and thorough; they do not get
drunk. nor stir up fights and riots.
For bours we were in view Of Great Salt Lake now
crossing arms of it upon trestle work. now skirting
Its northern bank, where thousands of acres are
white with fine salt deposited by floods: and now
miles away, but catching through breaks In the
hills glimpses of its deep blue waters, and its noun
tain islands tipped with snow. Passengers who
would really it, and enjoy delicious bath' should
stop for day in the vicinity of Ogden.
We supped wofully at Terrace, upon biscuits and
bacon; but breakfasted happily, almost luxuriOusy
at Elko. This too is new desert town. but it has
houses as well as tents, population OF 1000, stage
lines north and south, and considerable mining
trade party of IS men were just starting for some
newly-reported diggngs 60 miles to the north.
Among the dusty passengers who jumped from the
White Pine coach just in season for our train, was
II. G. Blaisdel, the Governor of Nevada. How glad
we all were to see again his towering form, and his
frank, hearty facel
Another day upon the desert. 1t seems to stretch
out to the crack of doom. Nobody realize how
great work this has been until he takes the long
ride of four OF FIVE days and nights through dreary
wastes and unbroken solitudes. On this immediate
portion of the road the alkali water would couode
boilers and destroy them. For hundred miles,
therefore, water IS carried in tanks upon platform
cars for the locomotives. A supply will ultimately
be brought from the Truckee River 80 miles, through
bored tamarack logs. Several stations already
furnished in that way, from springs six OF eight miles
distant On the Union Pacific, also, through the
Bitter Creek country water is carried 30 OF 40 miles
upon trains to overcome the same difficulty.
For the last night (the fifth since leaving Omaha
we 90 to bed III the sleeping At dark the air is
sultry; but we begin to ascend before midnight we
call for blankets. At daylight we wake among noble
forests and grand drifts with Donner Lake,
cool. blue and sparkling on our left Adieu to the
and spruces and furs daTkly green before or the
moses upon their trunks so brightly yellow, or
the tumbHug waters of such fOamy whitenessi Were
ever the rocks overhead so vast and threatening, or
the chasms below so deep to our straining eyes
Over the summit we go, and down the western
slope-through sixteen tunnels, through trenty miles
of snOw-sheds At the most exposed points the roofs
are of fournch planks, firmly bOlted into granite.
They have worked so well that nearly twenty miles
more are to be added. In nothing have the Central
Pacific people shown greater energy than in dealing
with the snow which falls here during an average
Winter to the depth of nearly fifty feet. year ago
to-day there were eighteen feet Of snow upon this
track; hundreds of Cinnamon with shoves
helping snow-plow three times as high as q tall
man. and driven by ten heavy locomotves to fight its
slow way through it,
Avalanches here never sweep the ground clean as
among the Alps. The first snow falls, and few
sunny DAYS and freezing nights incrust it with ice
Later SHOWS melting, begin to slide and roll down
upon it. ball will gather as large a load of hay,
then break into fifty other balls, each Of which
grows and breaks in turn. They carry an incredible
depth of bank into the deep. narrow valleys. Eco
nOmically the sheds a great success. Esthotical
ly they are q great nuisance Again and again, as
one enjoying the grandest scenery upon the conti
nent, the train plunges into long, dark chamber,
and the view is broken. BY direction of Gov. STAN
ford President Of the Company, some Of the boards
are being removed for the Summer. They should all
be knocked of every Spring
Down, down, down-mountains on one side moth
ing on the other! From one window we look up
q thousand feet to a snowy summit: from the OPP
pOste one down thousand two thousand
feet into green valley, with its swift-run-
ming stream tbickened and uuddied nv the miners