The Portland daily press., 1873-10-06
TERMS $500 PER ANNUMIN any.NCE

Going west from Harrisburg. xa cros. .ho
Susquehanna, following its banks for manv
miles. The country now becomes hilly. ve
should say mountainous, and the road winds
round the base of the mountains through da-
file and gorge close to the banks of the river.
can give you no adequate description of the
scenery. Here, one sees hills covered to their
very SUBMITS with dense evergreen; there,
immense fields, on their sunny slopes, which
will soon be green with the growing wheat,
mines of iron, and coal, huge bluffs of slex,
carloads of which are transported to the glass
factories oil Pittsburg stone quarries which
supply the road balast-for you know, that
this splendid road, with its Souble, and in
many sections Sd and 4th rail is oil ballasted
with broken stone, and laid with heavy steel
rails.
Somewhere among the hills we part COM
pany with the noble Susquehanna,' but we
only change companions, the blue Jenata'
takes its rise in the Alleghanies and we follow
its banks nearly all tbe way to Its source.
AT Tyrone we pass through tunnel. an
eighth of a mile long through the heart
of the mountain, thence we commence our
ascent of the Aileghanies. AT Altoona, all
the trains STOP allowing 20 minutes Tor meals
which are alwa in readiness. The hotel is
one OF the very best in the country. The re-
pair shops, and engine houses of the road.
all centre here. We counted 10 tracks before
the hotel, and as many engines, all fred up
ready to move. More than an hundred en-
gines are housed there at night. An i'm
niense iron foot bridge spans the tracks, from
which one has good view of the busy scene
below, and the country around. At Altoona
the train, with three engines attached, COM
fba ocaont Dnakipn
curves in its course; the first is slight,
in comparison with the others; the sec
Ond describes perfect horse shoe-thence
its name, horse shoe curve; the last, the pack
saddle curve, which, L imagine, takes its
name from the mountain. 1t is curious to
watch the engines winding steadily on round
the mountain brow; frightful too, sometimes
when ahead we see another train rushing
along down the slope apparently on our very
track, but it dashes past, and we are sale
from collision or accident, The views of
mountain SUBMITS towering above and abys-
ses below, into which the slightest accident
might dash the train, are grand and awe
inspiring, and tue distant view of mountain
and valley delightful; risk or danger are alike
forgotten in the novelty around us
just before reaching Galitzin we pass
through another tunnel seven eghths of
mile long; here windows are closed to keep
out he smoke, and the gas lighted to render
the darkness little less visible.
Galitzin is the highest point. Some three
thousand miles above the sea level 1t is a
small mining village The next point of in
terest is Cresson, great summer resort es-
pecially for invalids. The air is delightfully."-
pure, and bracing. The hotels and boarding
houses, and cottages. it is said, will accommo-
date some 1000 people in summer. At pres
ent the hotel is closed, and the pilgrims in
search OF the fountain of health, and eternal
] youth, are all scattered. 1t is a charming al
| attractive spot, where one can live in or abov
| the clouds and yet be on terra ytirmd.
Beyond Cresson we rass through some of
the mining districts of Pennsylvania, and can
see the tracks down the bill sides on which
the coal is transported to the cars in readi-
ness for market.
The route becomes more level as we ap-
proach Pittsburg and we lose sight Of noun
tain and bills altogether. From Pittsburg to
Chicago, the route presents no special at
tractions-we pass acres of corn aud winter
wheat, and the woods are bright with the
crimson and gold of autumn. The villagers
| in Northern Ohio, are very unattractive; the
old log house of frontier life is still visible, sur
rounded by field of corn or wheat, but the
neat New England villages are no where
| seen. R.