Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1895-08-26
PART III.
The Country of the Saints.
CHAPTER I.

On the Great All1ali 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 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 one mood
throughout this grim district. 1t com
prises snow-capped and lofty mountains
and dark and gloomy valleys. Ihere
are swift flowing rivers winch dasn
through jagged canyons; and there are
enormous plains, which in winter are
white with snow, and IN summer are
gray with the saline alkaI dust. Ihey
all preserve, however, the common
characteristics of barrenness, inhosplt-
atty and misery.
There are no inhabitants Of this land
of despair. A band of Pawnees or of
BIackfeet may occasion lily traverse it
in order to reach other hunting grounds,
but the hardest of the braves are glad
to lose sight of those awsome plains,
and to find themselves once more upon
the prairies. The coyote skulks among
through the air, and the clumsy grizzly
bear numbers through the dark ravines,
and picks up such SuStenance as 1t can
:xznong the rocks. These are the sole
jewellers in the wilderness.
: I'm the whole world there can be no
IN ore dreary view than that from the
lgr.r,hern slope of the Sierra Blln 20.
As far as the eye can reach stretches
tie grl at fiat plainland all busted over
with patches OF alkali, and 1nterSected
<6U clumps of the dWarfiSh chappAral
bushes On the extreme verge OF the
horizon lie a long chain Of mo 'ltaln
yeakS, with their rugged SUBMITS
fiecked with snow. In this great
sstIgtch of country there is no sign OF
,LNfe, nor of anything pertaining to life.
There is no bird N the steel-blue heay-
en-, no movement upon the dull gray
earth-above all, there is absolute 81
1ence. Listen as one may, there Is no
shadow of a sound in all that mighty
wilderness; nothing but silence-com-
plete and heart-subduing silence
1t has been said that there is nothing
arpertaining to life upon the broad
pglain. That is hardly true. Looking
Clfgyn the Sierra BlancO one sees
pathway traced out across the desert,
which winds away and is lost in the ex-
IRENE distance. It is rutted with
wheels and trodden down by the feet
sof many Adventures. Here and there
ARE .scsureered white objects which CHS
tten lm the sun, and stand out against
me dull deposit of alkan. Approach
and examine them! They are pones'
some large and coarse, others smaller
and more delicate. The former nave
belonged to oxen, and the lattefr 10
mon For fifteen hundred miles one
may trace this CHASTITY caravan route
Wv these scattered remains Oh InoSc
who have fallen by the wayslde.
Hooking down on this very scelle'
+here stood on the fourth Oh My,
eighteen hundred and forty-seVen, q
solitary traveller. HIS dpp app 80 $50
was such that he might nave
s vs. +ba very genius or demon OF
fine region. An observer WoulI nav (
.Tonnd # difficult to say whether ne was
nearer to forty or to sixty. Hls lace
was lean and haggard, and the Drown
narchment skin was drawn tightly over
tho projecting bones; lis long, pfoWn
rhoir and beard were all hecked ana
docbnd with white; his eyes were SUNK
on in his head, and burned with an un
v,a+,1raJ lustre. while the hand WhlcL
1r1.acnnd his fife was hardly more
6achy than that of a skeleton. AS III
stood. he leaned upon his weapon 10
oun1ort. and vet his tall figure ana th'
n1assive framework of his bones suS
gested a why and vigorous consul!
lion. His gaunt face, however al1u - -
clothes. which hung so bagSlly over L!
shriyeled limbs, proclaimed WIZ
was .hat gave him that senile ana dc d
.creDit appearance. The man was o5