Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-09-20
CopaIot of Jurisdiction.
: THE ALKALI PLAINS INNEvADA
Correspondence of the Chicago Post.l

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The Humboldt Valley is from ten to
twenty miles wide, probably the latter,
as the pure atmosphere enables one to
see at great distances, and deceives the
eye Of the inexperienced. All is sub
Unity, desolation aud grandeur. With
the single exception Of a few rods from
either bank of the Humboldt, there 10
no earthly sign or token Of vegetation.
All the mountain sides are bare, covered
with stones, as If just thrown out of a
| volcano not n tree, not a shrub, save
the sage grass ; not n bird, not a living
animal ; not a sound, save the rafting
of the coach. All is silence-desola-
ton. Mighty mountains, basking in a
burning SUM-, and q plain covered with
a ribbon of bright green, lying in the
center, while its broad edges are deep
yellow or dusty brown. The soil is
simply pulverized alkali, and the dust,
in clouds, covers the stage, blankets the
horses, chokes and blindens and stiles
those inside, while W. Of the outside,
shielded by green wells and seated high
up, escape in some measure its suffo-
eating aud blindening power. We leave
Elko at 10 o'clock, lying 5000 feet
above the seq, and are doomed for TWEEN.
ty.two hours to follow the HUMBOLDT,
until we climb gradually along up and
up to II, 900 feet above it, where | now
write, and ever here l look up Treasure
Hill, 1900 feet higher. do not exas-
gerate at all when ! say that this
Que days journey, for discomfort,
exceeds any other of the Same
distance on the earth, sunless it be in
the center Of Africa. The silence and
d~esolation that everywhere meet the
eye impress all men, and they
grow moody, and finally sink into utter
d~umbness. The mist thickens and
hangs in dark clouds like a tropical
thunder storm on the carriage and its
inmates. The horses snort and cough,
as it fills their lungs it permeateS tho
nose and eyes and ears Of the passen-
gers, it makes them blind aud deaf, and
dumb it permeates the clothes, creeps
under your clothing, thickens around
the eyes, makes them red like q drunk
ards you eat it, drink it, breathe it,
snuff it it clothes you, covers you, fills
all the pores and insterstices of the
body, and each man and woman is a
living, moving mass Of alkaline dust.
The horses, lost to sight, dash on, up
hill and down hill, at the rate of seven
miles per hour, though the dust crum.
bles beneath their feet at least ten
inches in depth, and they are actually
blsnketed with alkali. Here and there
the Humboldt crosses the road, and
with its bright laughing waters, gurgles
along, making the dust and thirst more
sitting by coutratt. The horses snort
as we stop to give them drink, and the
passengers climb down and rush to the
water like camels Of tho desert. A
breathing moment, aud again away we
60, higher, yet higher, and still en-.
shrouded in the same dusty cloud. Tho
sun pours down into the coach, and as
it rises to its meridian hight it ssorches
and burns and with the alkali our
passengers are soon like deyilled ham,
a dirty red, until all identity is gone.
Mems whiskers, moustaches aud hair
are all stifened with alkali, and the
very highest point of discomfort and
misery j, reached. AS We dash along,
no bird sounds a note to sooths us not
q living, moving thing is seen, save now
and then, at long intervals, an Indian
fishing for trout in the Humboldt not
q house or barn or field or fence meets
the eye, as we drive onward.