The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1875-04-14

loop-holed and enclosed with the
same fire-proof material, bear eVi-
dence of the struggle for mastery
between the adventurous white man
and the "Arabs of the West But
enough for the Platte River valley,
| its antecedents, and some of its
present inhabitants.
Although their are many objects,
new and interesting, to stranger on
this part, of the trans-continental
trip. one cannot help bnt grow weary
of the monotonous plain and never
changing landscape. The .frescOed
savage, the deer-skin clad hunter
with his western phrases and un-
couth dialect. and the cued China
man serve to keep up the interest of
the traveller until he reaches the
western slope of the Rocky Noun
tains with its deep gorges and rocky
canons. Weber Canon and Echo
Canon present scenery almost as
wild as imaginable. The rocks are
piled up in places as high as one
Thousand feet above the railroad,
and are cut and carved by the ele-
ments into wild and fantastic shapes
which by slight stretch of the i'm
agination take the appearance of
''feudal towers and turrets, gray"
Before reaching these canons | saw
species of house which I will en-
deavor to describe for the benefit of
some of your "love.in-a-cottage"
friends. / think it is peculiarly
adapted to the wants of the honey
moon days of welded life. 1t is all
underground eDcept the roof and that
is coUered oUe1 eoith sod. The only
window, is in one gable end the
other gable end is occupied by a
sort of trap door. Sometimes the
house is built on the bank Of creek
or river; then the entrance is
through the bank directly into the
body of the building.
| know that this description is
full. clear and complete, but for fear
it will become less so, 1 will add
nothing more to it, except, that the
house reminds me of the home of
the prairie dog, and one would al
most expect to see this four-Iegged
citizen of the plains jump up on the
roof, give two or three short, sharp,
barks, wag his tail, and then crawl
into his house again. (Ehtre nous,
this last was intended for a Joke,
the extreme thinness of which you
will excuse when you consider the
great distance it has been tetched.)
But | will return to my journey.
I reached Ogden, the terminus of
the Union Pacific Railroad, about
II o'clock at pight, and as we re-
mained there about one hour only,
did not get to see the famous Dead
Sea of America. The cars passed
for some distance close to the shore
of the lake, but | did hot see it at
ali. After leaving Ogden we trav-
eled by the Central Pacific Railroad
through. or rather along, the border
of the great American Desert. 1t
was night. as have said, and we
did not see much of it, but suppose
there was nothing to he seen except
the bare beds of alkali or wastes of
gray sand, and they were of common
occurrence for hundreds of miles
along this part of the road.
After entering the Humbolt River
Valley we were greeted by some of
the most beautiful scenery that it
has ever been my lot to behold.
Most probably, in the summer time,
70 -, 81 49,
broad valley and its mountain walls.
There is a strip of land along the
river, which is generally about four
miles from the road, that is covered
with grass and, when the snow does
not cover it, that furnishes fine graz
ing. The remaining portion of the
valley and all of the neighboring
mountain land is covered with moth
ing but the wild sage But the ev-
ident barrenness of this greater por-
tion was. at this time, concealed by
the snow which lay on the ground to
the depth Of about six inches. 1t
was the snow on the mountains and
on the plains, and though eveT-flit-
ting clouds, with their attendant
shadows, bathed in the bright sun
light, which gave snch beauty to the
landscape as I have seldom seen.
The mountains. ever varying in
their distance, gave back a deeper
or lighter blue from every differ
ent position viewed, while the clouds
resting on their SUBMITS reflected
every color of the rainbow from q
thousand light and fantastic shapes.
Near the river, thousands, literally
thousands, of cattle grazing on the
moist land where the snow had melt.
ed. gave an air of peace and quiet,
undisturbed even by the roar and
snort of the .iron-horse, to this nat
urally peaceful scene., But words
fail me to give you just idea of the
beauty of this mountain valley deck
ed in its snowy array, To be ap-
preciated it must be seen as saw
it.
After leaving this river valley we
struck out across the Nevada. Des-
ert, in full view by moonlight, OF the
Humbolt and Carson lakes. The
scenery again became monotonous
and continued pretty much the same
until we reached the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. We there entered upon
and among mountains in earnest.
Up to this point the railroads, both
Union Pacific and Central Pacific,
have been built for the most part
over level plains and along river
bottoms. In fact. it seems to me
that the difficulties overcome in
building this line Of road to the ST.
ezra Nevada Mountains have been
very much over-estimated. From
the eastern foot of these mountains,
however, to the plains of California,
the road has been built through