Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-08-08
NOTES OF TRAVEL,

tItNNNNi VI ENclg A-NtHlh6.
Salt Lake City, July live left
Manitou at dawn Just as the first rosy
glow of sunrise spread over Pixies Peak
and touched ono after another the lower
mountains For miles after We left
from behind its foothills Pixies Peak
peeped at US, one moment from one
side of the railway, the next from The
other, till we realized the Isalmist's
words, land the mountains skip like
rams" We saw the smelling furnaces
of Leadville and Cripple Greek and
passed through Pueblo, where are great
furnaces and smelling works, a thriving
town, n place Of magnificent distances
with its wide streets. in the Mexican
quarter were clitf dwellings, hewed one
above the other out of the rock and clay
and the women we're carrying tubs OF
water on their heads up the stesp
ascent. We passed Colorado ranches,
made fruitful by irrigation. Tho
mountains ars the sources OF wealth
of these Western States, for in them
are the mines of gold silver, copper
and lead, and, more valuable still, for
without them there could be no life.
the cool fresh mountain streams, that
are led by sluices over the land and
the men we met smoke OF their pros
perity and one said. II wouldn't give
a block of Colorado for the whole OF
New York." He was born in the East,
as were nearly all we encountered He
said the brakemen on the railroads get
from 1920 to $3.50 month as their runs
are long, and ir winter, dangerous,
when on the heavy mountain grades the
brakes will not grip the tracks aud the
trains sometimes run away. Last
winter one tore down the grade at such
pace as to injure the track to the
extent OF Sl3,00 He and other train
men inv ested their earnings in god
mine worked by one Of their number.
In the defiIes of the mountains we
saw much placer mining in desolate,
sun baked gulch a solitary miner was
standing knee-deep in the muddy water
bending his back over his sluioe in the
search for gold, some of which he
would probably later pay away TO cure
him of the rheumatism be was most
likely contracting. Gold eeems to hide
itself in the places most difficult of
access, in savage defiles Of the noun
tains only to be reached by toiling
over the scanned alkaline plains and
through The sage brush. We heard
marvellous stories of lucky finds, I" but
not SO much about those who suffered
from hunger and thirst and heat and
cold and went home poorer than they
came. All through Colorado and Nevada
We met many ore trains on their way
to the smelters, but the ore contained
more copper, iron and lead than gold,
though this was not altogether absent.
Rows of coke ovens, like giant bee
hives, stood beside the railway at in.
teryals, Except at the little towns we
passed through the wayside stations
are only name on a board, not house
10 sight. Curious, gorgeous flowers
doomed by the roadside; the colum.
bine, Colorado's State emblem, is ex-
qu'site, large blossom in lilac and
white. The wild cactus that covers
the plains farther south, here showed
few specimens.
From my seat in the rear of the OBJ
serration car l had perfect view of
the glories OF the Royal Gorge, narrow
ciltt IN the mountain through which
the train rolls around long curve close
under stupendous perpendicular cliffs
thousands OF feet high that are splashed
WIN color and scanned and banded 10
black and red. The jade. green waters
of the Arkansas River break the awful |
stiffness with their roar as they rush
through the gorge beside the track,
and where there is not room for both
the railroad has to yield and run on a |
track suspended from steel girders across |
the gorge. Far above the road the sky |
forms deep blue arch of light.
The mountains wall in the winter,
lt looks like great blue cup:
While the sky looks like another
Turned over it, botton-side up,
We trusted that our engineer was not |
30 appreciative as the one with whom |
a friend OF mine once rode through il. |
de said, THE thing is so id |
beautiful that sometimes l almost
forget my engine. -
All day we rode beside the lofty snow
clad Rockies, past Gray's Peak and |
Longs Peak, the highest OF the range
On the great slopes of Tenderfoot |
Mountain were whole fields Of snow.
4 he day of the greatest heat in the
East it showed in Tennessee Pass.
although this has been the hottest
summer in Colorado for 20 years. We |
crossed the great continental divide at /
Il ennessee Pass. On the eastern slope
we had met the waters flowing towards
us. We entered tunnel on the sum-
init and when we emerged the waters
were howlng with US towards the
Paciho. The limpid water OF the noun.
tain stream flowed clear for, a spaoe
then side by side 10 the same channel
with tile muddy flow from placer
mine, but at last mingled with it and
only served to tighten by shade its
muddy tint. Between US and the
mountains with their great gulcbes
hlled with snow stretched level green
meadows, beautiful with the varied
tints OF the grass which was fresh ard
tender as in spring, thanks TO the
Irrigating trenches fed by melting SNOW
and mountain lakes. II these sources
Of supply never fail them these western
Wildeinesses will be the most fertile part
u our country for irrigation Is more
dependable than rain and they need
ear no drouths. Behind the mountains
ay rich ranches on which large herds
II stock and acres of fruit and grain
ire raised.
Gradually the wide valley narrowed
IND soon we were hemmed in with high l.
bluffs. The fertile banks of the river
changed into tumbled, twisted, black
md blasted mass Of scoria, the effect
II Volcanic action. Great black walls
covered beside US and we were 10 the
anon OF the Grand River. The mount
iins behind us seemed to rise towards
he sky as il being created before our
'yes. vast bastions of granite in level
tiara, regular as masonry, looked like
! succession of enormous castles in
flowing colors of crimson, maroon, YER
Million and yellow with hanging gardens
II dark green pine and delicate aspins
With silvery stems. Whirliup arouud