Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-08-09
PART III.
The Country OF tho Saints.
CHAPTER 4.
On the Great AlkaIi Plain.

On the central portions Of the great
North American continent there lies an
arid and repulsive desert, which for
many a long year served as a barrier
against the advance Of civilization.
From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska,
and from the Yellowstone river In the
north to the Colorado upon the south,
is a region of desolation and silence.
Nor is nature always n n mood
throughout this grim district. 1t com
prises ~snow-capped and lofty mountains
and dark and gloomy valleys. There
are swift flowing rivers which dash
through jagged canyons; n there are
enormous plains, which in winter are
white with snow, and in summer are
gray with the saline alkah dust. Ihey
all preserve, however, the common
characteristics Of ~barrenness, inhospit-
atty and misery. ,
There are no inhabitants of this land
of DESPAIR. A band of Pawnees or OF
Blackfeet may occasion lilly traverse 1t
I'm order to reach other hunting grounds,
but the hardest of the braves are glad
10 lose sight Of those awsome plans,
and to find themselves once more upon
the prairies. The coyote skulks among
the scrub, the buzZard flaps heavily
through the air, and the clumsy grizzly
bear numbers through the dark rayines,
and picks up such ~sustenance as II can
among the rocks. These are the sole
dWellers in the wilderness.
In the whole world there can be no
n ore dreary view than that from the
northern slope of the Sierra Bldn 20.
As far as the eye can reach stretches
tie great fat plainland. all busted over
with patches OF alkali, and intersected
by clumps of the dwarfish chappNral
bushes On the cxtcame verge or the
horizon lie a long chain of mo 'ltaln
peaks, with their rugged SUBMITS
flecked with snow. In this great
stretch of country there is no sign or
life, nor Of anything pertaining to life.
There is no bird IN the steel-blue heav-
en-, no movement upon the dull gray
earth-above all, there is absolute ST.
lence. Listen as n may, there Is no
shadow of a sound in all that mighty
wilderness; nothing but silence-com-
plete and he~art-subduing silence.
II has been said that there is nothing
appertaining to life upon the broad
plain. That is hardly true. Looking
down the Sierra Blanco n sees a
pathway traced out across the desert,
which winds away and is lost in the ex-
IRENE distance. 1t is rutted with
wheels and trodden down by the feet
of MANY adventures. Here and there
are scattered white objects which glis-
fen in the sun, and stand out against
the dull deposit Of alkai. Approach,
and examine them! They are bones,
some large and coarse, others smaller
and more delicate. The former have
belonged to oxen, and the latter to
men. For fifteen hundred miles one
NAV trace this CHASTITY caravan route
by these scattered remains Of those
who have fallen by the wayside.
Looking down on this very scene,
there stood on the fourth Of May,
eighteen hundred and forty-seven, a
solitary traveller. His appearance
was such that he might nave
been the very genius or demon OF
the region. An observer would nave
! found 1t difficult to say whether he was
nearer to forty or to sixty. His FACE
was lean and haggard, and the brown
parchment skin was drawn tightly over
the projecting bones; his long, brown
hair and beard were all necked ana
dashed with white; his eyes were sunk
en- in his head, and burned with an un-
natural lustre: while the hand which
crashed his rife was hardly more
deshy than that Of a skeleton. AS ne
| stood, he leaned upon his weapon Tor
support, and yet his tall figure and the
massive framework Of his bones sug-
gested a why and vigorous consttu-
ton. His gaunt face, however, and his
clothes. which hung so baggily over his
shriyeled limbs, proclaimed what 1t
was that gave him that senile and de-