The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-09-05
we crept peryously along the edge of

Now through dense forests OF pine, mr.,
spruce and cedar; then among shrubs,
plants and violet flowers blooming along
our pathway. Now we were in deep
gorges that almost shut out the sunlight,
then on some mount Of vision from
which we could catch a glimpse OF the
wild grandeur around and about US,
Five miles from the base we came 20
"Jones's Park a beautiful meadow
5000 ieet above the level OF the sea,
which the eccentric owner has taken
SOME pains TO cultivate and ornament,
If you stop long enough Mr.. Jones VIII
tell you some strange stories ABOUT ms
twenty. six years Of mountaineer life
among the Rockies. Toiling on and up,
three miles from the park, we come to a
good. sized Lighthouse, which answers the
purpose of q hotel, 1t stands on the
borders Of beautiful little Lake Mo-
r%aine," which gives it its name of Lake
House." Here we rest for the night,
sleeping at an altitude of 10000 feet
above the sea.
In company with another, we were
early in the saddle next morning, tor IT
was five miles more to the summit, and
in that five miles we must mount up
1000 feet higher. 1t was a long, weary,
rugged climb. We were tired TO
death" several times over, still we lived
and pushed on. At an elevation OF
10000 feet we reached timber line
the utmost limit of tree life. This line
among the Alps is at an elevation of only
5000 feet. (By the way, they say out
here, of a man who is b%aldheaded that
"his head has got above timber line.")
Up, up, up, over the rough and rocky,
bleak and barren sides of the great peak
we climb. The atmosphere grows rarer
and respiration more difficult. 1t seems
as it we would never reach the top.
Higher and higher, through the light
thin air we urge our trembling, painting
horses, but we would pant worse than the
horses il, out of sympathy to them, we
should undertake to walk. Some at this
great elevation suffer from dizziness,
headache or nose-bleed, Others have
sensations similar TO seaslckness, AS we
we're resting our horses for a moment and
looking out on the gloomy desolation
around us, wondering if any living thing
could exist in such a waste Of bowling
wilderness of rocks, we heard a faint
squeak or bark, coming as we learned
from the little comics. There little ami.
mails are about the size and shape of q
prairie dog, They are found on these
peaks of the Rocky Mountains, and never
below timber line. One wonders how
they subsist where there is 10 vegetation
and if they are the same as the ~"conies'
Of the scripture which "make theiI
hou,es in the rocks"
When We were about a hundred yards
rom the summit the great snow
drifts across the trail compelled us to dis
mount. After tying our horses to the
stones we clambered up from rock tC
rock and boulder to boulder toward the
crown of the peak. AT last we we're a.
the Omitted States Signal Service sta
tion,"a square stone house with fiat
roof, built for the purpose of meteoro'
logical observations. On this lofty
watch-tower cold Probabilities" has
stationed his sentinels, whose duty it il
to send to Washington a telegraphiC
weather report every evening at sunset;
also to send a report by mail once q
week, After a few minutes conversation
with the lonely watcher dwelling on the
highest inhabited spot on the globe, we
went out into the clear morning atmOsr
phere to view Il surroundings. We
climbed over the rocks and around the
snow.drifts, b~uttoning up u o~vercoats
to keep out the chilling bret re, though
down on the plains, under the July sun,
the thermometer stood away up among
the'nineties." On the very summit is a
nearly level surface OF about sixty acres,
but this space is 20 completely covered
with great boulders and fragments OF
great ragged granite rocks that not an
inch OF soil can be seen.
But look around and beneath you from
this lofty spot ifyou want n of the
grandest panoramas this earth affords.
70 the west, and far away, are the vast
mountains of the "Snowy Range, "among
the lofty peaks of which are Harvard"
"Yale" and "Lincoln," crowned with
perpetual whiteness. Intervening be-
tween the mountain monarch we are on
and the snowy "rockie," are many lower
peaks ranging from 10000 to 10000 feet
high. To the north are "James's'
"Long's" and "Grey's" peaks standing
head and shoulders above their fellows,
Turning to the east, Just down to the foot
of the peak is Manitou, with its springs,
and the Garden of the Gods, and beauti.
full Glen Eyre. Colorado Springs, out
on the plain, five miles from the base OF
the mountain, is so far below us we can
not distinguish the dwellings from each
other. Beyond the settlements, as far az
human eye a reach, wesee theimmense
plains of Colorado, bounded on the one
hand by the valley of the Platte and
on the other by the Arkansas valley.
To the south is the Greenhorn range,
the Spanish peaks, and old Sierra Blanco
lifting its white head nearer the stars
than any other peak in all our stipend
GUS surroundings.
To DEVELOP HEALTHY AND HARMON
IoUs ACTION among the organs of secretion
digestion, and evacuation, take Dr.. Morris
Vegetable Liver Pills, which BEAUTIFULLY
"