The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1898-01-20
LETTER FROM LEO.
A TRIP OVER THE GREAT AMERI-
CAN DESERT.
BEYOND ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
A Tale of Travel over Barren Plains and
Desolate Mountains-An Indian
War Whoop and It's
Results.

through New MEXICO ana Arizona TO
California. he will be profoundly dis
appointed. For more than 300 miles
stretches solitary plain, the picture of
desolation. Vegetation or running
streams are exceptions. The small
clusters of houses at the stations are
built by the railroad company for the
use of employees, and the citizen who
would embark in individual enterprise
is not to be found there. To reside
there would be Punishment from civ
ilization. Many of the stations consist
of one small building standing solitary
and alone. while other stations which
figure in the time table consist of a
post and sign board only, waiting for
future Developments.
Monotonous and dreary as the ride is
to the average traveller, or tOthose who
choose to make it so, yet there is some
thing to be learned by those who are
observant. They contrast this dreary
waste with the fourishing country
which they have left behind. Even the
African desert has it's charms to ride
over once to see its desolation and
learn to appreciate better country.
One class of travellers will view
everything with the most intense in
terest, whatever it may be, and the
pencil and note book are brought into
requisition; while another class may
pass in sight of the grandest noun
tains, the most profound and awe in
spring canons, the stupendOus over
hanging crags, or valleys of unsurpass-
ing beauty-all are matters of indiffer-
them. They have no poetry in their
souls nor admiration for the sublime or
the beautiful, and if questioned would
not know that they had passed any
thing unusual
One object on the plain arrests the
attention, for moment, of those who
are fortunate enough to catch the view.
tits the Canon Diabolo Devils Canon).
There is nothing to indicate the ap-
proach till the train fits across it on a
spider web like bridge and is away in
moment. 1t is a profound chasm in
the plateau some $50 feet deep by more
than 500 feet broad, evidently vol
canic rent, and several miles in extent,
and unless the traveller is on the look
out for it he is liable to miss it entirely.
We have been bowled along over the
plain at a rapid rate, for several hours,
but now the engine begins to labor and
catch for breath, the speed slackens
and it is up hill work, while we follow
a zig-zag track up the mountain side.
We are approaching Flagstaff, an i'm
pOrtant station among the mountains,
a Furnishing little town of more than
1000 population. A level plateau
more than 5000 feet above the sea
level, affords it.s,a beautiful site. We
have left New Mexico some ways in the
rear, territory in the stay as it has
been termed and asserted that if all it's
mountain ranges were leveled smoothly
over it's valleys and plains, the entire
area of more than 10000 square miles
would stand higher above the sea than
the highest'peaksof the Adrondacks in
northern New York. The town is sur
rounded by mountains and forests of
Norway pine on two sides and by an
extensive plateau on two other sides,
and contains an extensive lumber mill
affording employ for more than
three hundred workmen. But the town
is destitute of water except at time
of freshets and is dependent on the
daily water trains of the railroad.
From this station may be reached
many points ofinterest to the arch8olo-
gist, and the lovers of the grand and
sublime. To reach the Grand Canon
of the Colorado at it's most favorable
point requires stage jaunt of % miles
"a canon more than 5000 feet in depth
and half dozen miles in width. The
home of the cliff jewellers is eight miles
distant but neither of these trips seem
practicable in the winter. The petri
fed fourts and other points OF interest
may be more conveniently reached
ITOu OLU0I oOtIIuuO1 anu Will OOO
reasonable expense in the summer when
camping is practicable. A
The Lowell Astronomical observatory
is located on an eminence half mile
west of the station, which though far
less pretensious than the Lick Obser-
vatory on Mount Hamilton, near San
Jose, or the Yerkes at Lake Geneva,
Wis, has been productive of many i'm
portant results. The ediice consists of
a structure similar to huge water
tank, 40 feet in diameter and 20 feet
high, surmounted by another similar
structure of less dimensions constructed
to revolve, horizontally, with an apere-
ture for the telescope which may be
diverted to any part of the heavens.
The view of the surrounding country
from this location is magnificent.
Towards the south and east the plain
nYtands as far as the eve can reach and