Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1876-03-30
The Snow of the sierras
Crossing the Continent in the Sea.
son of Avalanches.

son of AValanches.
A Blockade on the Central Pa
cific Road in the Mountains
Riding in the Wake of the Bis
Snow Plough = Charging th'
Drifts-The Lot of SecOnd-CIas
Passengers.
The Central Pacific Railway
Company announce in San Fran
cisco daily that the" "snow block.
ade is raised" and thus encour
age travellers to undertake The
ride across the Sierras. Yet, Al
the same time, on the bulletin
boards in the hotels and at the
ferry it is easy to decipher such
notices as this, "The overland
train { Vest twenty hours be.
hind time" This certainly
means that snow has had some
thing to do with the detention
of the train. But these bulIe.
tins are not intended for the in.
spection of easternbound pas.
sengers, and are not exhibited
to public view until after the
morning train (there is only one
train daily) has started on ite
way.
Ats A. NJ, on March 9, when
the Oakland ferry boat steamed
out from the San Francisco pier,
the metropolis of the Pacific
coast was partially obscured by
fog. Telegraph Hill loomed
barren and cold, yet the grass
was green and the flowers fra
grant on Goat Island. The at
mosphere of the bay was balmy
and spring-like, and over-coats
were tossed on the hand-satch-
els and lunch-baskets. At the
Oakland wharf an overland train
was in readiness. and no time
was wasted in gathering passen-
gers and baggage into the cars.
Soon the train speeded through
Brooklyn, Alameda, San Lean
dro, Lathrop, and on its way TO
Sacramento-the city of mud;
and the temporary stopping
place of the law makers of Cal
ifornia. AT 2:30 the passen-
gers waved an adieu to the rap
idly rising and threatening Sac
ramento river, and rrmbled a.
long until 4:15 P. NJ.
Then, only eight hours and
fifteen minutes out from San
Francisco, in q green covered
and beautiful farming country,
the train was checked, and the
astonishing information that the
previous days train was snow
bound at Clipper Gap, twenty
miles away, was impaired to
the passengers. At lao A. NJ.
the train started, and, after a
ride of fourteen miles, the pas
sengers saw by the light Of the
moon the first snow. The air
became crisper and fiercer as
the train advanced into the Sier-
ras, and at Colfax heavy snow
storm was encountered. That
fearfully dizzy height and mar
row roadway known as Cape
Horn, near the summit of one
of the highest ofthe mountains,
was yet to be reached, and the
passengers felt the great sway
ing from the velocity of the
winds, and peered through the
car windows as though anxious
to know the exact depth they
must fall in the event Of the
train being blown from the
track. "Cape Horn," shouted
a brakeman, and the affrighted
passengers rubbed their noses
against the window panes and
sSared for dear life. The lights
from the locomotives and the
cars threw weird, uncertain
brightness oyerthe awful depths
at the trains side, and the snow
burdened trees stood like so
many artistic monuments in a
cemetery of the future. The
storm was raging at its height,
and sleep was out of the ques-l
ton. The winds smothered the
of the locomotive, and
the rafting of the car windows
drowned the voices Of the pas
sengers, who wished the train |
contained none but Central Pa
cific Railroad directors. The
"Horn" was passed and the pas
sengers breathed freer; yet the
storm was not stayed, and at Al
A. NJ. the train was stopped by
an avalanche of snow at Alta,
20S miles from San Francisco.-I
The day dawned upon a train
half buried in the snow The
mountain peaks at the left
seemed to reach to the skies,
and on the right the great canon
seemed bottomless. The pic
ture was dazzling " brightness