The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-06-04

brave was thus in an upright position,
looking in the contrary direct on from h is
mother. BY an ingenious contrivance the
duties of the nursery we're lightened, and
the little fellow seemed as happy and
contented as could be expected of scion
of decaying race. He was as brown as
a nut, and had four teeth, and smiled
back upon us with smile that was child
like and bland. Only his face was ex-
posed and that could be covered at need
by small flannel curtain which depend
ed from a willow porticc that served as
shade. 1t is not customary in this couu-
try to give the Indians any quarter, but
| mad another pappoose of about the same
size in my mind, and could not refrain
from giving the s4uaw a quarter on ac-
count of the baby.
We finally struck an eating station,
Carlin, 300 miles west OF Ogden, about
. p. m, and very good one too. am
afraid the proprietor of the hotel did not
make much out of that days patronage.
Many ofthc passengers took three square
meals in thirty minutes.
Before we wont TO sleep that night VIC
had an hour Of splendid scenery in Hum
boldt Canon, where the Humboldt river
finds course between beetling "palisad-
cs' from five to fifteen hundred feet high
not quite equal to Echo Canon, perhaps,
but very grand still. The next morning
we had crossed the desert and arrived at
Truckee valley, through which the
Truckee river runs east here, we come to
where it flows swiftly between high hills
covered with heavy, but sparsely growing
pine timber. Here it was that the Maine
lumberman took courage after crossing
the weary plains in the caravan days, and
thanked God that he "smelt pitch" once
more. We get accustomed to the entire
absence of trees in the landscape, seeing
them only at Salt Lake, from the Missou.
ri river 20 the Truckee, and the stalwart
pine never looked so good to us before.
As we passed up the Truckec valley
we were rapidly increasing our altitude
and soon we began to make magnificent
sweeps around deep gorges in the noun
tains, frequently seeing the track over
which we had come parallel with us Mt
lower elevation, or that over which We
were to 60 parallel with us at a higher
1t is astonishing to see how many "horse-
shoes have been made here with railroad
iron. Snow sheds became frequent at
this point, and the ground was covered
with snow by the side of the road. As
we wound around the gorges and up the
mountain side break in the snow sheds
revealed to US lovely picture of Dormer
Lake, far below the snow-clad hills we
were encompassing. We passed out Of
sight of it in our windings, but came to it
again and again, each time looking down
upon it from higher altitude, until we
left it behind US, and passing through in
terminable snow-sheds and an occasional
tunnel, stopped for breakfast at the
summit.
The summit-what we saw Of twas
covered by huge snow-shcd, which is
here spread out wide enough to cover -
side track and a large area extending
from the road to the hotel. The hotel is
very good onc and our break fast was
all that could be desired The snow
banks were driftcd about US from eight
to fifteen feet on this Sth day of May.
We had increased our altitude from 5000
to over 1000 feet in the last hundre |
miles, and were now at the highest point
Of the pass over the Sierra Nevadas. The
pass Of the Rocky Mountains, at Sher-
man, on the Union Pacific, is twelve
hundred feet higher, but we reach the
highest altitude there more gradually anil
feel it much less in the weather. The
descent on the Pacific side is still more
rapid In less than one hundred mile-
to Junction-whcrc the Oregon Railroad
branches out for the north-we run down
from 7017 feet to less than two hundred.
Leaving the summit We run through
some twenty miles more of snow-sheds,
with only occasional gaps, through which
We catch glimpses of magnificent gorges,
in which the tributaries OF the Sacra-
mcn.o river are lcaping downward to-
ward the sea. We pass Cascade, Tama-
rack, Casco, Emigrant Gap, make an
other horseshoe to get round the Blue
Canon, where we see the first signs of
placer or hydraulic mining, and then
travel for miles through region which
has all been dug over, and excavatel
from one to fifty feet deep in the search
for gold. Work enough has been done
here to grade a railroad from Boston to
San Francisco Smart mining towns are
perched here on the mountains, from four
to six thousand feet above the sea level,
Colfax being one Of the most thrifty on
the line of the road, when we get little
farther down, though there are much
larger places off the line You Bet
and "Red Dog" mining towns, are names
redolent of the old days Of the placer
mining mania. Cape Horn is the most
celebrated point of scenery on the route.
Here the railroad winds around the face
of mountain on road bed which is II
mere furrow. On one side we look down
two or three thousand feet into a lovely
valley through which American rivers
runs, aud on the other side the mountain
runs up thousand feet more. We found
the view we got of the great American
Canon, some miles before reaching Cape
Horn, quite as striking, though it is rot
so famous. To appreciate Cape Horn one
should be in the valley, and see the train
winding along the face Of the mountain.
The bitches and fumes which convey
water over all this mining region form
the most interesting feature in the land
scape. The miners have tapped the
streams far up towards their sources in
the mountains, and brought the water in
bitches along the hilsides to be used
wherever wanted. There must be hun
dreds of miles of these artificial streams,
generally about three feet wide and from
six inches to a foot deep, with a sufii
cient decline to make them run swiftly.