Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1877-10-27

colossal "fillings" here facilitated the
upward carriage of tho line at Il
grade of per cent. over the first
reach Of less than ta elve kilometres of
horizontal distance Mr.. Thorndike has
here carried his road up nearly 1000 feet
without tunnel OF a bridge. The road
bed is of the most admirable char acter,
and the great locomotive with it's train
worked its way up almost as smoothly
and quietly as if running on a level. 1t
would be idle for me to attempt to de-
scribe theincessantly varying, but always
grand and breath taking, vistas that
opened upon us at every moment as we
mounted. The scenery of the Brenner or
of the Semmering may be admitted to
possess in the way Of picturesque towns,
cleaning far down below your aerial path
and of forests and scattered trees, charms
which arc lacking in this comparatively
treclcss and tOwnless chaos of gigantic
rocks. Rnt neither the Brenner nor the
Semmering road certainly makes any such
impression upon the spectator as this, of
tAD SNilA utItiuS "ioh
which it has been constructed. Two years
of hard work and $4,5OOOOO were expen-
dcd upon this Cahuintala section alone.
When you leach point from which you
can take in at n glance the colossal zig
zags which have brought you up, it really
seems almost impossible to imagine how
any man, put at the foot of this "giant's
stairway" with directions to find way
up it for a steam-engine and an indefinite
amount of tonnage thereunto appended
should ever have succeeded in SO doing.
As scientific soldiers tell us there is no
fortress which cannot be taken, it being
wholly a question of chow long," SO l am
inclined to believe now that there is no
mountain which cannot be scaled by the
locomotive, provided only the money and
the men be found Beyond the ramparts
of Cahuintala stretch the smell ':pampa"
of Cohendo and the great "pa,npa' Of
islay.
All travellers have united in reviling
these vast wastes of moving lands. and l
dare say that if had travcisel them my
self on mlllcback. under II tropical sun, l
should have had few good words to give
Them. Bat seen from the windows OF Il
railway carriage, as VIC ran rapidly across
their level width, they had Il strange, pc
culiar beauty of their own. Nothing could
be softer or more exquisite than the noon
.!av flats of these sands. The prcdomin-
ant huc is delicate fawn color. deepen
ing here ai,tl there into brown, with hnl-
lows OF the loveli"st ",!ovc colnr,' and in
Vulnerable .swirdows" of bright and
luminous asleE gray. Far away around
the distant hori zon swept the great Dur
plish hills, marked here and there on their
ridges and in their riffs with shining
white deposits of 'ccniza" or volcanic
ashes, which narvcllously resemble snow
drifts, or white deposits, less shining and
less intensely white, Of sea-sand, lifted
high in the air, and blown for miles and
miles inland by the tremendous force OF
the winds wllc. periodically sweep along
its coast. More distant yet flash out the
true snow-pealls Of the great Chain OF the
Andes, seeming to upbear on their crys-
talline SUBMITS the blue, blue vault of
Syria.
From the pampas of Arequipa we climb
ed about 5000 feet more. Over much OF
this distance the road seems to have been
carried through the geological workshop
of the world, while nature was trying ex-
perimcnts in petrifaction on the most CO.
lossal scale. Strattications the most un-
exDected and the most inc ongruouS sue
ceed each other like the combinations OF
q Kaleidoscope traces of upheaval and
traces of explosion, marine deposits and
volcanic deiections huddled together with
an apparent sort of desperation and OF
hurry quite indescribable. In some places
the surface Of the earth as tar as the eye
could range presented such All appearance
as one would fancy might result from
rain of rocks. The most giSan tic masses,
slarrcd and shattered porphyritic bolld-
era wei rlling many tons, had been flung
ohont over tho ground like peanut-shells
about the feet of the gods OF tho Bowcry.
On the Ouishualani and Huasamayo sec
tions of the road we passed through some
monstrous cuttings, in some cases OF near
" or quite 300 feet in length, through
rocks of the hardest character, upon
which more powder had been expended
tbon aver went to the making of Il ''fa-
mons victory" One descent OF many
hundred feet brought you to the bridge,
Of the SUNDAY, This bridge carries the
railway over the torrent of SUNDAY, at an
of some 200 feet over the river
he'd. and of 13, 42O feet above the level OF
tbc sea. The bridge is of iron, rising l3o
toot above the III assive masonry on which
it rests, and consists OF tw" spans OF 10
feet each, springing from q stone pier OF
80 feet. or of total length OF 500 feet.