Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-12-12
The Great American Desert.

The Vicomte d'Haussonville, one of
! our country's guests at the centenary
celebration of Yorktown, made a trip
across the United States, coming last
from San Franciso by the Southern Pa
chic Railway. He was probably one
OF the first Europeans who passed over
the road. The following description of
The desert is translated from his % Il
1rdrers les Etdts- Unis:''
Some hours after having left Los
Angeles, the railway entered an entire.
ly different region. and it is impossible
to imagine a suddener change. The
Gulf of California, whose width and
depth are known. penetrated, l know
| not how many millions of years ago,
still farther into the land. Little by
little it has retired, leav'n dry its an
cient bed. which is tod ~ three hun
dred feet above the level of the sea.
The railway descends into this bed, bv
an imperceptible decline and it finishes
by running upon the tine sand which
formerly slept at the bottom of the
ocean. Sleepers are placed upon the
sand, rails upon the sleepers; NJ en-
bankments, no enclosures To right
and left rise mountains which once
formed the banks of the gulf
AFTER so many centuries have rolled
away the eye discerns perfectly where
! formerly the waters flowed. Below
this line, the rocks have preserved the
I greenish color of reefs which the sea
leaves bare at low tide. Above. they
hsve taken. under the continued action
of the sun. reddish tint. as if burned.
The line of demarcation is strai ght aud
clear to the eye as if it had been drawn
to the cord. 1t is the same upon the
isolated peaks that arise in the midst
of the sand, and which must have once
formed islands. But, little by little,
the mountains recede and hide them
selves. The railway rolls over an open
desert of sand, raising by its march
whiriwinds of fine dust, that finds its
way into the cars, Notwithstanding the
closely fitted double windows. No liv-
ing being; no trace of vegetation; only
sky and sand 1t is the desert in all
its grandeur, its brilliancy and its beau
ty. About every two hours the train
stops at a station, that is to say, at a
cabin situated near a coal shed and a
reservoir of water, fed by well. In
this cabin a man lives. sometimes alone.
sometimes with his wife and children.
To what degree of distress is it neces-
sary that n human being must have
come in order to accept such life,
Doubtless, these are miners drawn bv
the gold fever into this new Territory
of Arizona, which we are crossing, and
upon whom fortune may not have
smiled; or. more likely, these are per-
sons who have come to seek security
and oblivion in these desolate regions
While the boiler is being filled, they ex.
change some words with the engineer,
and ask him, probably, news of the civ
iliZed world; then the train moves on,
and no more for them until the next
dav. II ever the famous trans Sahara
railway is made. this viii be something
like it. / experienced again, with JOY.
all the lively impressions that L had
once received in the East. These are
the same decided colors of the desert;
this brilliant yellow sand, this hard
blue sky. losing itself at the horizon in
vaporous mirage. This is the same
aspect of grandeur and of solitude
which so much struck mo, nineteen
years ago, when contemplated, from
the tops OF hills that bathe their feet in
the Nile, those plains of sand which
roll. without undulation and without
limit even, towards the mysterious re
gions OF Central Africa.
still remember having left my da-
haoeah to climb to the summit of one
of those hills which are surrounded bv
the ruins of temple, and of having re
mained seated upon those ruins until
nightfall. Watching in turn the sun
disappearing in the burning sky, the
Nile unrollng at my feet the long rib
bon of its waters, the desert that ex
tended as far as the eve could reach.
and asking myself with what feeling
the ancient inhabitants of this old earth
formerly viewed the same spectacle
Ah, well, do not know if this Ameri-
can desert without past, without name
has not still more grandeur; and if the
thought of those centuries of solitude
which have preceded the recent con
quest of man does not speak more
even to the Imagination than the re
membrance of those centuries of his
tory. Notwithstanding the dust and
heat, can not tear mvself from the
little platform of our car; l am intoXi-
Gated with this sun, with these colors
that shall see no more, and the com
ing of night alone can drive me away.
At last we cross the. Colorado River.
which marks the limit of the desert,
and towards eight o clock in the even
ing we reach Fort Yuma on the frontier
of Mexico. CongregationaliSt.