The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-04-13
Our 0liu.
AMERICAN AND ITALIAN SUNSETS

Lieut.. Meline, an officer in the u. S
army, who marched across the plains tc
Santa Fe, in New Mexico, and in his very
entertaining book, entitled 'sTwo Thou
SAND MILES ON HORSEBACK" contrasts
the beauty of American sunsets with the
much-vaunted sunsets of Italy, and hesi.
tates not to give the preference to our own
gorgeously beautiful sunset skies. Near
O'Fallons Bluff, Kansas, in the middle OF
June, he writes:
Your correspondent, after hard day Z
ride, having risen at a. m. scribbling
with lead pencil, paper on knee, at set
OF sun, IN front of his tent, has before his
eyes scene of marvellous beauty. We
have glorious risings and settings of the
sun. With rcveille at three, we are usu-
ally standing by our horses waiting for the
buSler to sound "mount" when the rich
sunlight, bathing the clouds in gold, spreads
over valley and river Each sunset is de-
clared more magnificent than the last, and
sometimes the question is asked if this is
as grand as an Italian sunset, showing how
deeply rooted in our literature is the Eng
lish belief on that subject 1t is all very
well to declare an Italian sunset maguif-
cent, as compared with English leaden
skies, but it is simply absurd for an Amer
lean to adopt the idea and apply it to his
own country.
Again he writes from the South Fork
of the Platte, Colorado:
Camp Wardwell is distinctly seen across
the tableland by which you approach it, a
distance of ten miles. Beyond it | per-
eeive piles of remarkable clouds in the
western horizon, and on reaching the camp,
discovered that they had a fixed outline
of cones and peaks, and that I beheld, not
clouds, but-the Rocky Mountains |
had not expected to see them so soon, and
all my anticipations were SO entirely sur
passed that my gaze was as much of sur
prise as of admiration.
Jefferson spoke of the scenery at the
point where the Potomac and Shenandoah
mingle their waters as worth a VOYAGE
across the ocean. IF he be right, the spec
tacie | now have before me is worth a
journey across both oceans and more con-
tinents than exist. am inclined to be-
lieve, though, that Jefferson had not seen
much grand American scenery; and, in
deed, but little of it was known in his day.
The point from which my first view of
the mountains was obtained, is one hun
dred and thirty-fve miles east of Longs
Peak, which looms up the grand centre
and pinnacle of the Rocky Mountain
range in this latitude. The distance is
less to the outside eastern boundary of the
chain, which rises like a Titanic wall
straight up from the body of the plain, but
the Peak, with its body-guard of grand,
snowy elevations, is plainly visible to the
naked eye at that distance.
The first satisfactory view the European
traveller obtains of the Bernese Alps
(Wetterhorn, &c.) is at sixty miles. The
view of these American mountains, at
more than twice the distance, impress me
as incomparably finer; and / solemnly
abandon the last of my European illusions
on the subject Of European scenery.
The English have made such a noise, in
prose and verse, in every book l used to
read, about Italian sunsets, that | could
hardly trust the evidence of my senses
when | saw their inferiority to those
had been looking at all my life in my ma
tive land
Once seen, European rivers and lakes
were soon consigned to their proper rank;
but | must confess, the Alps had hold
on me that is only now, for the first time,
shaken. Understand me: do not Judge
from the hasty glance Of the traveller who
does all Europe in six weeks. | am as
familiar with every appearance of both
Swiss and Italian Ali ps-morning, noon,
and sunset-as three months on foot among
them are likely to make any enc.
l have before me now stretch of one
hundred and twenty miles of snow-capped
and snow-clad mountains, and these by no
means the most elevated, nor the grandest
of range stretching from the British line
to Mexico (more than fifteen hundred
miles and pronounce it sublime.
The distance from the southern termi-
nus to the northern British boundary is, |
am aware, eleven hundred miles in a
straight line; but the deviations in the
course of the range must make its length
even greater than | have stated. When
we consider, too, that this world of noun
tains has width of one thousand miles in
extent,-I repeat, breadth of one thou
sand miles from the base of its eastern to
the foot Of its Pacific slope, 1T will readily
be seen that we could carve out dozen
or two Switzerlands, and scarcely miss
them.
As to questions of mere altitude of one
or two particular points, | have not the
statistics in my memory to discuss them;
and, if had, it would not affect the ques-
tion of the effect of the two ranges upon
the eye and the mind,
Byron sang
Mount Blanc is the monarch Of mountains
They crowned him long ago"
But the world has kept marching on in
geography and geology, and Mount Hood,
of the Rocky Mountain range, and several
Of the Himmalayan range-among them
Mount Everest, the highest, so called after
its English mensurator-have long since
dethroned the European mountain king.
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