The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-07-09
FRIDAY. JULY ., 1875.
FRONE KANSAS 10 CALL
FOR VA.
(CnNTINUFD.l


bankments, and on our right rise
vast cliffs, covered with snow. This
is a strange, mysterious looking sea,
surrounded by salt marshes, and
vast breadths of alkaline baroness.
The homes OF the Saints look badly
enough, scattered along the foot
slopes. The fields are carefully ir-
rigated by the mountain streams,
and all things beiOkeR industry and
thrift. The Mormons have many
sins to answer for, but idleness ia
not in the list.
Night came down upon us as we
were skirting the salt lake. AS /
write this, the great snow-fields OF
the Nevada range lie like a white
cloud upon the western horizon.
We are crossing strange land OF
hills, rocks and sage brush, bnt we
can see the Humboldt plain not far
ahead. The air is wonderfully brac-
ing and pure, and the distant
mountains deceive the eye by their
apparent nearness. The White Pine
silver mines lie just beyond the
Humboldt range, which rises on the
southwest, covered with snow.
The ride down the Humboldt val
ley was a unique experience. We
entered it in the morning, and fol-
lowed 1t to its sink-some $50 miles.
The plain is in some places ten
mics wide, in others a mere gorge.
1t is everywhere walled by the bar
est, blacklist, bleakest mountains on
the continent. The soil is a light
brown loan, Only needing water to
make it productive. As we neared
the lake, we found o few places
where streams had been brought
from the mountain, and had turned
the desert into fruitful fields and
orchards. Excepting these, the on
ly vegetation is sage and grease
wood" an ugly, dwarfed confer.
But the lake is strangest of all. 1t
is q stagnant pool, ten by forty
miles, of heavy, nauseous alkaline
water. Boiling springs pour into it,
aud dreary waste stretches around
it. Darkness came down as we
were traversing its banks. The sky
was misty, the mountains black and
bare, the water sullen and motion
less. 1t would be hard to imagine
anything more uncanny and styg-
ian. 1t seemed to me like "the
black lake Avernus, where vampires
drink even the breath" There is u
lonely station on it's bank, where a
sign announces "pies for SALE" and
melancholy Irishman informed me
that there were suckers in the lake
and that all drinkable water was
brought on the train from Truckee
some thirty miles. Those pies and
suckers helped to dissipate the
nightmare surrounding the lake.
At the western foot of the Neva-
da mountains, resume these frag-
mentary notes. 1t is Tuesday fore
noon, june 18th, our fifth day ou
from Omaha. woke at 3 O'Clock
this morning; dawn was family
breaking, and the solemn glory o
snow-capped and pine-clad forest!
was around us. Our train, drawn
by two powerful engines, was toll
ing up the steep grade of the east
ern slope. AS we neared the sum.
init, we entered the snow-sheds
which hid the landscape, except at
small intervals, for forty miles
Snow-banks lay beside the track {
heavy white frost covered all. Il
the Frightening day we caught s
glimpse ofDonner Lake, half-wrap
in mist, a thousand feet below us
visible through gap in the plank
ing of the snow-shed. At last W.
had passed the snow-sheds and
seven or eight tunnels, anu com.
menced our rush down the western
slopes. Those were bold-hearte,
engineers who laid out that road
My superlatives are already exhaus
ted; 1 cannot describe it. 1t was
sublime swoop, from the snow
summit down through u heav!
storm, along the edge of amazin:
precipices, from which we coul'
look down upon farms and house
as toy maps; through Titanic pile
of granite, draped with pine
through canons and over embank
ments and bridges that made til
flesh creep above, and through, an
under, one layer after anot her c
clouds past great desolate gorget
and hills washed down by the gold
miners. Mining is destructiv
work; it leaves only rubbish an
ruiz behind it. The vegetatio
changed from great, sombre pine
to oak and bewildering variety {
lowering plants; and soon W
went sweeping through broad, du
ty valleys toward the Sacramento
Cinnamon everywhere, in an UNIV;
rying uniform of blue cotton oil
anders, fuschias, geraniums, grow
ing in the open air; marvellous be
ries, peaches and apricots peddle
by boys through the cars; platfor
trains, loaded with granite slabs {
route for Sacramento stubble-fiel'
from which the ripened crop h
been removed parched, brown hill
covered with a dead looking diva
grass, like the bufIalo-grass of q
plains; fugitive glimpses of Il
vast domes of Nevada behind u
as. L. 1860. "" scrawled upon q
cliffs everywhere; such are some
tho pictures of the foot-slopes.
Californian railways are vel
much like those of other states,
that they take the traveller throui
the back streets, among teneme
houses and smoky factories. Ne
erlheless, Sacramento looks We
paradisaical, buried in flowers al
trees, with the great white dome
the State House dominant over q