Connecticut western news., 1873-05-09
On she Pacific Ienilroaa.
fCOntinuetl

mafKaoie only as being the place where first
 In the United States women sat as jurors,
 For description of the country traversed during the night must rely upon my. guide
 book, but shall no. recapitulste wha: ] read, preferring to give you my own i'm.
 pressions, crude as they are. When l
 woke to daylight again found the surface ct tue country somewhat changed, as We
 had crossed the s' divlde,' and the streams ' which ran alongside now flowed into the Pacific instead of the Atlantic waters. We were still apparently amid rolling prairie, but the ground was covered with a gray stunted shrub, called sage bush, which has precisely the color of sage, and irnparts a dull hue to all the landscape. It is inter- minable, and has been our constant..com- panion all day. saw nothing worthy of note until we came to Green River city--a city of the pasta few hundred ..,deby '" halls standing roohess lo show where the ephemeral place had been. The building of the Pacific R. R. attracted every type of adventurer, and wherever the iron rail halt
 ed in its onward passage for few weeks there the miscellaneous crowd reared a town, where life lasted as long as the road cortinued stationary ;and whose inhabitants were as unstable as the .. doby". houses which they built. Not the least curious
 and suggestive of the sights in this new country. is one of these dilapidated and de- serted < cities" We stopped at Green n
 River for breakfast, when distinguished myself by eating mine and coolly walking off without the formality of paying for it, so reckon that I am set down by that Green River caterer ss 8 western ..' dead beat" But as I told the fellow, whose array of fossiis attracted me to the sudden exclu. sion of remembrspee of my indebted
 ness, that if he would obtain some good specimens I would purchase them on nv ' return. may pay for thst indifferent meal yee. Shortly after leaving this point we saw the first and only antelope, which looked very pretty and graceful bounding over the plains. There were fourteen of them; little yellow deer with crooked horns. Soon we caught glimpses of the Wahsatch mountains, showing their snowy peaks against the clear blue sky. Behind these ay Brigham'se domain--almost enchanted ground. We looked with wondering eyes af the ice clad mountains wli cl, seemed to
 wall in, with chill barrier, the land of
 polygamy. Alter running long time up
 the hanks of . small stream we reached
 Evanston, the dinner station, and afterward
 set on the car platform awaiting the won. derscof Echo canyon, which we were, rap idly approaching, and, strange to say, we
 were aot disappointed when we entered it.
 words cannot convey to your mind any sdequste conception of the bold and almost terrible features of this famous rayine. For miles the cars run in a close, crooked gorge, 90 narrow it seems impossible for the train to find an exit from the valley, and at every cdfye 1t appeared as if we must dash against the rocks which sometimes ap- peared so-near as almost to, ,overhang the track. On either side are mountains strstching their. summits to the skies, not smooth verdant mountains like your native New England hills, but rough, ragged mountains with huge masses of rock piled upon each other in the utmost confusion. The walls on the right of the canyon as you enter from the east are much more, precipi. tons than on the left, rising in some places more than one thousand feet perpendicu- lariy. They are of sort of red sandstone worn by the action of the wind and water into many fantastic shapes. A small stream runs along theo bottom of the gulf, dispu- ting possession with the track, as in many places the embodiment is rip-rapped with stone to keep the fierce little torrent within ooaads. or It was B very pleasant day, the air halmy in spite of the snow clad peaks that reared their heads around us. I sat on the platform with no overcoat, and one gentleman rode for miles, without his hat l thought of you shivefing in the wintry air, and deprecated the climate. which knows no spring. Numbers of rocks along the road have been named from fancied resemblance to some other objects: Pulpit Rock, near Echo city, and Devils Slide, in Neber canyon, are the most prominent and as the antipodes in this arbitrary nomencla- ture. The latter manifests most curious freak of nature down the mountain slope . thousand feet run two perpepdicular and parallel ledges of rock about 20 feet apart, forming sort of trough or slide in which the brooches of his satanic majesty must have worn toiefsbly thin before he reached the end of the declitltY. At Echo city we emerged from Echo canyon only to enter Weber canyon, another gorge of equal magnidcence, the Neber river about twice aa large as Salmon creek at Lime Rock, runs through this canyon. There is not sufficient space in some places for both railroad and stream, and two tunnels pierce the rock and solve the question of pos session. At Devils Gate the Neber pours its angry food through an exceedingly mar TOW cut, and just before reaching it we come toa dwarf pine with "loO0 miles sway from Omaha" printed on . board swinging in it's branches. After leaving Devils Gate we come into the valley of Neber river, where the scenery, becomes more peaceful in its character, although We are atM surrounded by snow capped noun tAtns. After travelling several miles through . valley which the Mormon farmers were blowing, all the frost being out of the ground, we arrived at Ogden where the Union Pacific R. R. ends and the Central Pacidc beginss Here we took the cars of ! the Utah Central R. R., of which Brigham Young is President, and rushing down the shore of the Great Salt Lake, as o'clock ! were seated to sup in the Walker House, a hotel exceeding in the comfort of its sp7 pointments some nearer the heart of civili- zaaion in ouf land, and saying good night here our experience within Mormon. terri