The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-08-11
EDITORIAL CORREsPONpENOE.

should lie upon the sofa and use a fan |
till train time. But truce to preface
and apology. We learned long ago
that there is no rest for an editor.
Our meetings closed at Boise amid
the general good feeling of her hospita-
BILE citizens; and on the next morning
the obliging watchman reused US from
fitful slumber of an hour or two with
the information that the Silver City
stage was coming.
Judge and Mrs. Kelly, whose kind
ness and hospitality we shall ever hold
in grateful remembrance, assisted us
with "traps" and baggage, and we were
soon bowling away through the fertile
valley of Boise River, amid profusion
of vegetation perfectly bewildering to
contemplate. The freshets of the earlier
season have so changed the course of
the river that the bridge now sits high
and dry upon a rocky bar, and the
coach is ferried across with rope and
windlass, while the bridge looks on in
silent and solemn mockery.
Up and over the hill, and out over a
sandy and sagey plain we go, and at
breakfast time reach the "fifteen-miIe
station" where good Mrs. Seaman takes
possession of the missionary and urges
us to remain with her till the following
morning for much-needed rest. We are
not hard to persuade, for the fatigues of
travel, lecturing, and loss Of sleep are
telling fearfully upon our avoirdupois.
The stage goes on and leaves US in the
midst of a desert plain, with no other
habitation within a dozen miles. But
our hostess is a host in herself, and we
talk about everything from basque
pattern to a republic, and from religion
to the cultivation of the arid soil of the
plain.
Twenty-fOur hours thus spent with a
good sleep thrown i'm so far recuperate
us that we are ready for the next days
staging. The driver asks us to seat
beside him, and again we journey on
ward.
Everywhere we see the ever-abound.
ing sage-brush, the universal alkali,
and the omnipresent basaltic rock. AS
we gaze, new theory strikes us. Evil
IDENTIFY the great American desert was
formerly the oceans bed. Sometime in
the long ago, when the waters were di-
vided and the dry lands appeared, the
ocean had shifted its bed and thrown
itself upon another continent, leaving
this mighty inland basin thick strewn
. with animal decomposition and saline
: deposits; and myriads of bones were
/ left to bleach and whiten upon the great
, basaltic beds of the once deep sea-
r Straightway the alkalies began the
/ slow work of decomposition, acting
/ upon the basaltic formation as the ages
2 rolled, and forming sediments of min.
gled soil and sand, the latter greatly
= predominating. Then the sage-brust
= came, a silent fertilizer, a constant
? worker, persistent agent of Omnipo
e tence, and taking hold wherever the
:. newly-formed soil would give it small
i est opportunity, down went it's roots il
i search of sustenance, up and out wen
! its leaves and branches into the Sitting
t atmosphere, and 10! and behold! tn,
o centuries came and departed, and cam,
}, and went again, and at last these deser
n plains need nothing but water to caus
them to bring forth fruit of all kinds il
). its season, from sixty to a thousan,
: fold.
The scenery upon our road to Silve
q City, after leaving the plain and strik
ing the mountains which formed an an
cient sea-rim, was much like that be
fore described in going from Boise t
Idaho and Placerville. Mountains, will
: and wierd and mighty, lifted thei
e ghostly crests into the blue ether q
. you that a single misstep of your horse
q would plunge you into the literal bot
; tomless pit; abandoned gold fields, al
= burrowed out by miners in the day
gone by; trees, "massy and tall an
=, dark" lifted their blue-green crests i
the air; rivulets laughed at the foot
hills; and far, far away rose othe
mountain ranges, till it seemed a
though the magnificent vastness of ere
!, alton were indeed immeasurable, eve
= with observation confined to this tel
Il restrial ball.
e Four o'clock brought us to Silve
.e City and the Idaho House, well-kep
- hotel, where the weary wanderer ma
le be sure of cheer. The town is nestle
+ under the lee of great mountains, a
/ most at their very summit, and in til
= region of perpetual snow. The peopl
Y are as free as the mountain air the
L breathe and as stanch aud true as I'll
Of eternal hills.
Our first visitor was Mrs. Ann
Weeks, formerly Miss Tompkins
lie Albany, whom her good husband ha
'd several years ago transplanted from I'll
Us valley of the Willamette to the aurife
r Gus mountains of Idaho. OF course
D. visit to her cozy and hospitable hon
cd was next in order, and here for tN
lr days we spent the time most pleasantl
Id If every mutual acquaintance in IL
eh WebfoOt land whose name was spoke
during that two days visit could hay
in heard the conversation thew cOuld