Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-07-16
F7H7P8UsT[ 10 THE PACIFIC
FFrro,,z 4 -i \. RIchardson's Tribune Cor
rsspondznce.1

rFroln ailart D. RIe1ardson's Tribune Co
rsspondsnce.l
As the Central has been complete
months earlier than its owners ez
peeted- its full complement of passeI
ger coache es is not yet received. BIT
we had the good fortune to find sleeE
ing car at PromOutOEy, the second ths
ever passed over the line. It was bui]
at Wilmington Del.s and is owned an
run, not pysa separate corporation, bu
& byr the Raffroatf Company. At nearI
I every station through to Sacramento
the people, attracted by its novelty
crowded. up to its doors and Windows
eager to laspe6f it, and prompt to ez
claim, sfIsn't it gay ~ fsThat beats tn
world ~ We found It smooth-runnin
and comfortable, q vast improvement
upon day coaches, but far inferior t
Pullman's.
we passed hosts of Chinamen. short
ening curves and ballasting the track
Nearly 200 are still employed in per
tfecting the road They are all vOuna
and their faces look singularly quicl
and intelligent A few wear baslze
hats; but all haze substituted boots 70
their wooden Shoes and adopted pant
aIoons and BlOusess They receive So
per month"; gold9 and board themselves
OF this they seHe from so to $23. TIL
| Onion Paei& Company, which is pay
ing lis la90rers & per day, (currency
Is about to employ tsle Chinese alont
tieut. and thorough they do not ge
drunk. nor stir up fights and riots.
/ For hours we Wseesin view of Grea
! Salt Lake, now crossing arms Of &c up0I
trestle-Work; now sk1Esing its north
| ern bank, whore bhOus nos of acres arr
white with fine salt deposited by floods
| and now miles away, but catching
| through breaks in the bills, g1impses
/ Of its deep blue waters, and its noun.
/ tain islands tipped with snow. Pas
sengers who would really see It., anG
1 enjoy q delicious bath, should stop fol
a day in the vicinity of Ogden.
We supped wofully at Terrace, upon
biscuits and bacon; but breakfasted
/ happily, almost tluxnriously, at Edkol
This, too, is q new desert town but il
has houses as ven az tents, a popula-
ton of 1900, stage Zines north and
trade A party Of % men were just
starting for some neW1y-reported dig
gings, go miles to the north Among
the dusty passengers who jumped from
the White Pine coach, just in season
for our train, WaSs44 e. Blaisdel, the
Governor of Nevada How glad we
all were to see again his towering form,
and his frank, hearty face!
b Another day upon the desert. 1t
seems to stretch ont to The crack OF
doom. Nobody caIa realize how great
a work this has been until he takes the
long ride of four or i've days and nights
through dreary wastes and unbroken
solitudes. On this Immediate portion
of the road the alkali water would cor
rode boilers and soon Destroy them
For a hundred miles, Therefore, water
is carried in tanks, npou platform cars,
for the locomotives. a supply will
ultimately be brought from the Truckee
River, 50 miles, through bored tama-
rack logs. Several stations are already
furnished in that way, from springs
six or eight miles distant. On the
Union Pacific, also, through the Bitter
Creek country, water is carried 80 or 40
miles upon trains, to overcome the
same difficulty.
For the last night the fifth since
leaving Omaha) we go to bed in the
sleeping car. At dark the air is sultry;
but we begin to ascend; before mid
night we call for blankets. AT day
light we wake among noble forests and
grand snow drifts,sWith DOnner Lake,
cool, blue and sparkling, on our left.
Adieu to the DESERT Hail to the
Sierras! Were ever these pines, and
spruces, and furs, so darlxlE green be-
fore, or the mosses upon their trunks
so brightly yellow or the tumDnng
waters of such foaufy whiteness2 Were
ever the rocks overhead so vast and
threatening, or the ehasnaS below so
deep to our straining yes
over tta0 1aIIEl1g We go, and down
the western slope-throHgh SiEtee7s tun-
nels, through taCelzty miles of snow
sheds. At the most exposed points the
roofs are of four-inE.a planlzs5 firmly
so we'll 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. A year ago to-day there were
eighteen feet of snow upon this track I;
hundreds of Cinnamon with shovels
were helping a snoW-ploW (three times
as high as a tall man, and driven by
ten heavy comotiVes) to fight its slow
way through it.
AvsIanches here never sweep the
ground clean as among the Alps. The
first snow falls, and a few sunny days
and freezing nights incrust it with ice.
Later SHOWS, melting, begin to slide
and roll down upon 1t. A ball will
Gather as large as a load of hay, then
break into fifty other balls, each one OF
which grows and breaks IN turn. They
carry an incredible depth OF bank into
the deep narrow valleys. Econom-
icaIlv. the sheds are great success
Esthetically, they are great nuisance.
oain and again, as one is enjoying the
Orandest scenery upon the continent,
the train plunges into long chamber,
and the view is broken. By direction
off Gov. Stanford, President of the
ConDanv. some of the boards are be-
ing removed for th6~summer. They
should all be knocked off every spring
Down. down, doWn-mountains on
one side. nothing on the other! From
one window we look up a Thousand
feet, to a snowy SUM NIT (; from the op-
posite one down thousand or TWO
| thousand feet, into a green valley
with its swift-running stream thicken'
4 ed and muddied by the miners. The
Il foliage grows warmer. The eVergreens
! are i1terspersed with white dogwoo6
/ flowers as large as the palm OF ones
/ hand white strawberry blossoms
/ blue Iarkspurs, blue and white lupines
\ and the curling. blood-red leaves o.
4 the low, conical snow cactus.
/ The woods open into the broader
/ fields of the foothills. Tall pines anC
furs give way to spreading live oak
with glossy leaves. We pass mining
/ towns, scattered farm-houses, anC
4 grazing horses, sheep, and spotted cat
Il tie Thicker and-taller grows thu
grass, but always dull and faded 70,
| the vivid green of the East is neve.
seen in this dry climate. Late in thI
Il season the landscape is straw-colored
Now we are fairly in the valley
f
4 and oIeander, clusters of ripe cur
II rants, cherries and neetarines, luxu
\ RANT fig trees, vineyards of thirty ant
forty acres, 1apping windmills 70
II pumping water from the wells, lov
Il dwellings with deep porticos, half hid
den by vines and shading trees, field
nearly a mile long, in which the sill
very barley is up to mans waist, AM
other fields in which the oats hav
been cut and raked into winrows. w
glide across the broad American river
and over half a mile of trestle-work
through the spreading suburbs of Sac
ramento along the levee, the river O.
one side and 4 slough, with half-sub
merged roofs and timbers, wreck
from the flood of Sixty-two, on tn
other past the Central Pacific ma
chine and repair shops, round-houses
and car sheds; through the Chimes
J quarter-and here we are at tide-wate
from the Pacific, with steamer onth
: river and train of (Vallejo) cars o
, the opposite bank, waiting to take U
: to San Francisco. Five hours ago W
, were among snow banks; here th
mercury stands 90 degrees in the shad
{ 1t is but forenoon's journey froI
Winter to Summer, and only a twent
| L --sTl hoo T-Eo oF4