The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-08-27
"a TRAMP ABROAD"
Interesting Letter from MIR. August
j. Rehbein.
Continued
(Continued.)

(Contlnued.l
The San Joaquin Valley extend
ing northward from the Tehachapi
Mountains to the Sacramento Val
ley, and laying between the Coast
Range on the west, and the Sierra
Nevadas on the east, forms a basin
go miles long and from 80 to 60
miles wide. The San Joaquin river
runs north through this valley unit
ing with the Sacramento river and
flowing westward into San Francis
co Bay, thence through the Golden
Gate into the Pacific Ocean. 1t
was an extremely hot day when we
took this journey from Los Angeles
to San Francisco through this val
ley. We had to close our car win
dows to keep the hot air out, but
with the temperature at 95 or 100
degrees in the shade, we felt no eX-
hauStion from the heat. The dry
ness of the air renders this extreme
heat less felt than it would along
our eastern coast where the air is
more moist. Through this valley
we passed groves of oranges, lemons,
olives, dates, figs, grapes, and other
semi-tropical fruits, giving evidences
of its wealth where water has been
applied through irrigation. Ac-
cording to the census of 1902, 9OS,-
1872 acres of land in this valley alone
was under irrigation, and this out
of a total acreage of 1,70S,72O un-
der irrigation throughout the state,
and we were told that it was safe
to assert, that more than two mill
lion acres are being watered at this
time. In California this brief state
ment will illustrate what has, and
is being accomplished in reclaiming
that which was once called Desert
Land" We reached Fresno, half
way up the valley, at noon. Here
is the center of the largest raisin
producing district in the world,
about five-siXths of the total pro-
duction of the URited States, or
from so to 60 thousand tons comes
from the Fresno district. Also the
celebrated smyrna tig-the fig of
commerce is now produced here
in perfection. They call it the
Calimyrna fig. At MerCed, a small
country town in the heart of the
valley, is where the Yosemite Val
ley Railroad can be taken to the
picturesque and wonder valley of
the Yosemite.
We continue our journey north.
passing through Lathrop, Tracy,
Port Costa, where the great ware
houses which receive the products
of the grain fields of nearly all the
State. are situated, and arrive at
San Francisco at 7:45 o'clock. We
left Saturday night at 8 o'clock, by
the Overland Route for Denver,
Col, and the east. We had as our
companion on this trip to Denver,
Prof. Clark, of Stanford University,
who gave us some very interesting
information in regard to the scenery
we travelled through. We were up
early the next morning; our train
vas climbing the sides of the Blue
Canyon, where we had a beautiful
view down the gorge some two
| thousand feet. Along this part of
our journey, for a number of miles
, the track is protected by snow
sheds, but the sides OF the sheds are
latticed so the scenery is not en-
tirely lost. We reached the sum-
nit, 701S feet above the sea, at
o'clock AS We passed on, we saw
to our left, down in the valley, In
dependence, Bonner and Weber
Lakes. The unfortunate Bonner
party camped by the lake of that
name, showed in, in the winter of
1S4G-47, losing 43 of its SO mem
bers. We arrived at Truckee at S
O'Clock a. III. This is a numbering
and railroad town of about two
thousand people. We follow the
mountain side down the canyon of
the Truckee river, and at 10 O'Clock
we are at Reno, at the foot of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. Reno is
the most important and substantial
of Nevada cities. At Sparks,
short distance from Reno, we set
our watches one hour ahead from
Pacific TO mountain time. Our next
important stop is HaZen, where
passengers change cars who wish to
go fortune hunting IN southern Ne
vada, among the mines. We could
name the Rawhide, Fairview, Won
der, Tonopah, Goldfield, Bullfrog
and a score of camps already we'll
known to prospectors and stock
brokers, that are reached by the
n. c. r. r. from Hazen. This be-
! ing the 4th of July, most all the
/ places we passed through were dec
Grated for the occasion. At 7:17
p. m. We are at Battle Mountain
| Here in the early sixties was the
scene of fierce fight between the
/ Immigrants and Indians. The In
dians were worsted, but they claim
to this day heap white men killed" :"
! Eastward our train follows the old
overland trail to Lucin, across a
region for half a century described
in Biographies as the Great Ameri-
can Desert" now said to be good