Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-06-04
WHAT L SAW OUT WEST.
BY DAVID HILL.

team is a delightful trip; at least, i
is to one who enjoys that novelty fol
the first time. Everything you lool
at is new and novel. The rocks, the
color of the soil, the shubbery, the
plants, and even the trees look differ
emit from those in the east. Trees'
| There virtually are no trees. Those
among the foothills of the eastern
slope are mere scrubs; scrub pines
resembling the wind SCARED Norway
pines along the Atlantic coast. MOI
until you go fifteen, twenty, Or even
| tt irty miles into the mountains dc
you find them in patches of any ex-
tent; and even then they are much
! inferior to those among the Sierras.
| A few hard woods are seen along the
! creeks down in the canyons. [ call
| them hard woods for want Of a better
name; but they look stunted and
small and would pass for large shrub
berry much quicker than they would
for trees.
Take a pencil and inadvertently
draw as many crooked lines as posi-
BILE upon a slate and you have some
faint idea of Rocky Mountain high
way. You may be within five hun
dred yards Of some given point, and
then be forced to criss cross, see saw
and go zigzagging around for full
hour before you reach it. Of course
this is necessary on account Of the
many steep declivities and barriers
of rock; but it don't make the road
any straighter for all of that. My
trip was taken with M. E. Dodge, who
visits many mining towns in the
mountains in his capacity Of CONNER
cial traveller. We left Boulder in the
morning, visited Sunshine, Rockville,
Wards, Sunset, Gold Hill, and few
other places and then returned at
night. One mile from Boulder we en-
tered the canyon. Following that and
the creek for another mile we began
the ascent. At first it was quite grad
ual and the mountains low; each
range, of course, reaching one above
the other, and increasing in height as
we advanced.
I noticed one thing during the day
that was quite peculiar. Not all of
the mountains terminated in peaks.
Some seemed TO have their tops cut
off, and were followed out in the
center like d basin, irregular Of course,
leaving broad meadows almost entire
ly free from stone, and the soil Of
which was rich and fertile. That soil
was cultivated. I saw grass, grain
and potatoes growing up on those
mountain farms at an altitude of 1000
feet or more above the sea, and it
was not strange either. Protected on
ali sides by the rocky ridges around,
which cut out the cutting winds and
sweeping blasts, the sun shone down
into those broad, scooped-out basin
meadows hot and scalding. It gave
warmth and activity to the soil; and
the SHOWS and rains of winter, hem
med in by those same rocky ridges,
served to irritate it throughout the
summer; and thus it was that the
grasses grew, and the ranchman
thrived, and the cattle and horses
skipped and gamboled the same as if
upon some farm deep down among
the green hills of Vermont.
Up the sides of one mountain, over
basin farm, underneath scrub pines,
past open and deserted mines, curv-
ing around a ridge, and we descend
~ e = 10
a canyon on the opposite side. Along
this for few miles, the creek on one
side and the almost perpendicular
walls Of rock on the other, and we be-
gin the ascent of another mountain
higher than the first. I mean by the
ascent that we slab it in a kind of
Zigzag course; or, to use a nautical
term, we ''tack" it, going to the right
on gradual rise for long distance,
then making short turn and going
left, still up, in the same manner, and
so on until the summit is reached.
The top of this mountain was round
ing and was covered with large bouId
ers, an endless number of small ,brok-
en- rocks and the soil was nothing but
powdered stone intermixed with
coarse gravel. This, after the rocks
and boulders had been removed, made
an excellent highway, the surface of
the road being as hard and smooth as
a concrete walk. The view from this
point was magnificent. On all sides
were mountain peaks, some covered |
with trees, some barren and rocky,
and some, still towering above us but
a few miles away, glistening in their
white caps of eternal SHOWS. Far