The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-08-25
LETTERS FROM The PEOPLE.
THIS COLUMN Is OPEN TO ALL.
For The Cecil Whis
A SOUTH AMERICAN RAILROAD.

Fut III" Cecil " Ing.
A SOUTH AMERICAN RAILROAD.
4 Trip Acr0ss the 1hdes --4meriraA En-
| gjn6erihg- Grand tSccH@ry-.iH tMihhab
/ tied Country The Tabie Lands Coai
Mines, etc., etc.
Mr.. EDIToR.-Now the din Of civil wal
has ceased brought on by the evil passions
of men, bent on destroying the interna
| improvements of our country, causing
bloodshed, death and general distress; and
our own sore-footed, weary 80 days veter-
ans have returned to the more peaceful
! pursuits of life, perhaps a brief description
/ of what American enterprise and skill in
| the way of g gantic railroad is doing tC
bring to light and use an almost unknown
! portion of South America, may be inter
eSting to at least some of your intelligent
readers. therefore send you cerbatin1 an
extract from IA very interesting letter ust
received from Mr.. VIM. c. Seymour, of the
| Ordnance Department of the L. S. ship
Ontdha-tag ship of the South Pacific
! Squadron:
son our passage down the coast from
Payta, we visited for the first time, new
harbor called 'Chimbote.' 1t is new, fol
no one ever lived there until Henry Meigs
|
the U. s., began building railroad to
connect the harbor with the interior of
Northern Peru. 1t is the finest encos
| ed bay and secure harbor on the whole
western coast of South America. The city
| of the future will be built on 4 sand plain,
| the bed of an ancient river, and will have
| room enough to grow as large as three
Philadelphias, and will have the most mag
niiicent framing in the world. The great
Andes on its TANKS and rear rises from the
| plain to a highth of from sixteen to eigh-
teen Thousand feet, and at early dawn they
do make grand and sublime picture,
when their snow capped peaks pierce the
blue vault of heaven, and the young rising
sun kisses them so tenderly and throws a
halo of golden glory around their old brows.
With their old bare sides scanned and rent,
they stand out grim, frowning and ugly.
But, ah, how grand for all that.
| Now for our railroad trip. The Supcrin-
tendent being an American gentleman,
kindly invited the officers to join him on
an excursion ur the road. We left the
wharf at 7 A. NJ, the train consisting of a
large, heavy mountain engine and one pass
enger car. The first eight miles were over
the sand plain, and its glare in the bright
f, sunlight gave pain to the eyes and brought
memories of the bleached bones on the des-
ert. Not sign of life on all that waste
but the great mountains frOwn down grimly
as if to shut out all the world beyond. We
come to the foot hills, and here we find
traces of the great Inca Empire of old
sections of their great highways built of
blocks of adobe and walled in, and the
crags are crowned with ruins of vast forti-
tications, erected to guard the valley of An
chic. We now come to what, in ages gone
| by was a furious mountain torrent, but
now very small yet very noisy, which had
cut an opening for itself through these old
hills. This is called the valley Of Anchie
and the railroad must follow the stream, as
otherwise it never could have been build
AS we approach this wonderful mountain
wall, all look eagerly for an entrance, yet
see none, ana conclude that we have to go
through tunnel; but now is seen an open
ing, and alb, what an opening it is! Oh,
for Bayard Taylor's pen, or Beirstadt's
magic pencil, that | might paint that pic
ture and send it to you and your Elkton
friends to contemplate and admire.
1t is not a valley but a grand and great
chasm, oser 200 feet wide. The mountains
tower almost perpendicular 1 600 feet, with
no sign Of life save the huge Condor, the
eagle of the Andes, lowering among the
crags. Along the edge of the stream is a
slight fringe of varied green. The slanting
rays Of the sun striking the mountain side
gave it tone of FURNISHED gold. The
wonderful blue of the sky comes down and
meets the green ascending from the river.
The gold, the blue, and the green oommin-
gled and yet each color had it's edge sharply
defined. This light fell on the mountain,
and over all was thrown a shimmering veil
of gauze, which toned down, and softened,
and beautitied this wonderful, this mystic
scene. How softened and delicate the
beauty; how rugged and awe inspiring the
grandeur. The color seemed as if 1t might
belong to the robe of the throne of the
Eternal.
But l must go Oh through the chasm,
then over an iron bridge TO the other side
of the river, and now we have come to
where the cliff rises perpendicular for thou
sands of feet and so the engineer had to cut
the rock at an angle and leave the cliff hang
ing over head. At some points the grade
was awful and fearfuly great, aud the
curves look impossible to turn. Now we
pass along a precipice so narrow that there
is hardly room for the rails. The noun
tanS seemed integrated and one would
almost believe that the movement of the
train would cause them to tumble down
and crush all below them. Look over your
head and you will see rocks the size of hills
hanging, as it were, by thread. lou
fancy you could pry them off with hand
spike. The bare rock is torn and worn
away, showing evidence that, in by gone
ages they were subjected to the wash of
tremendous torrents of water. Along this
line of road no smiling fields of waving
grain, no prosperous farm houses green
pastures or happy rural homes meet the
eye, no sign of life, and the very barren
ness has the hue of death; nothing to look
at but the travelling torrent beneath and
those monarchs of mountains over all.
At / A. NJ we stopped at station No ,,
where poor windmill was aborIng for
dear life, trying to draw from the run, 80
feet below, water to fill the locomotive
tank. Our next stopping place was at a
bridge, over a deep chasm, 10 miles from
the coast and 1 900 feet above the level of
the sea- This is as far as the road is com
pleted. Thirty miles farther it will reach
that very beautiful table-land between the
Cordilleras and the Andes. There its ter
minus will be city Of 1000 habitantS,
near which vast coal mine has been dis
covered more valuable to South America
than any gold mine of California After
letting our iron horse have time to blow,
we started for the ship, and | rolled my
cloak around me, went to sleep so as to
forget all about high grades, sharp curves
and loose bOulders over head. Near the
harbor of Chimbote there is a great sugar
plantation containing 100, 900 acres of land,
has 20 miles of railroad for hauling cane,
employs 1000 Cinnamon, and makes 81
tons of sugar per day. In my next will
give you a description of the OraZa Rail
road, with grade OF $4,000 feet in eighty