HOME VIA SAN FRANCISCO.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3163, 18 August 1881, Page 3

HOME VIA SAN FRANCISCO.

Tbe following extracts from the private letter of a Wairoa settler, describing the trip across the American Continent from San Francisco to New York, will be reid with interest by our local readers: — " We had a most pleasant passage from Auckland to San Francisco per " s.s. City of Sydney," and though a head wind prevailed during the whole passage, our vessel proved herself good and true by arriving at 'Frisco almost to the hour ou which she was due ; but we were very nearly let in for 17 days quarantine on arrival at that port, owing to our steamer having called at Honolulu, and taken on board some fifty or sixty passengers for Frisco". I have do doubt you are aware that the Sandwich Islands are being fast depopulated by small pox ; the natives there seem to be fading away like the New Zealandere, and extinction within a few years seems to be the fate of both races. I had a long conversation whilst at Honolulu with a gentleman whom f knew over twenty years ago there, and who has been there ever since. He tells me tbe native population has decreased over 50 per cent within the last four years. I remained at San Francisco with some friends for eight days, and on the 26th May started on the long railroad journey across to New York, fully provided with luncheon basket, &c, &c, for though meals, and pretty good ones, can be had along the line at several places at 1 dol. per meal, still it is best for travellers to be independent, at all events when in the unsettled districts. From San Francisco we crossed the bay in a most magnificent ferry steam-boat to the City of Oakland?, from thence the steam-cars start. We left Oaklands at 3 p.m., and went at a fair rate of speed for American railroad travelling, (about 30 miles an hour) till we began to ascend the Sierra Nevada ; for the whole distance between OakI lands and nearly to the base of those I mountains the country through which I we passed was beautiful in the extreme. I We ran through thousands of acres of wheat and other cereal lands ; the crops all looking remarkably well, and as harvesting would commence in a month or so, the place was seen to good advantage. What strikes a New Zealander as much as anything is the absence of fences— even the line of railway is unfenced, whether in town or country, right on it goes without a fence of any sort. During the night we began the ascent of the Sierra Nevada, on which there are some very nasty places, which are apt to create a sort of creeping of the skin when looking out of the car windows in passing. Owing to the darkness we could not see much, but it would have been nearly the same had we crossed in daylight, as the trains run through miles upon miles of snow sheds with openings of a few hundred yards here and there, but through these openings good views of these snowy heights can be obtained, which are grand in the extreme, though most rugged and desolate; the mountains, most of them nothing but mosses or naked rock, absolutely nothing but rock, with a few stunted pines growing thinly on their sides. At last, after many miles of snow sheds, and what appeared to me slow travelling, we arrived at the highest point of tbe Sierra Nevada, crossed by the railway, and now our speed is increased. Away we rush through one long chain of continuous snow sheds down to the lower portion of Nevada through miles upon miles of country composed of nothing but rock, with even in this month of the year snow everywhere ; now across ravines, not at all nice to look down into—to one in whose memory the Tay bridge disaster is still fresh—then whirling and twisting round corners and angles, the road being in many places cut out of the face of the sheer cliff, mountain torrents foaming many hundreds of feet below ; however, at the rate we have been descending we soon reach the leveller portion of the Nevada country, which seems to be as desolate a country as man can conceive. At this high elevation little or nothing will grow without care; and as we look the general remarks are heard from one end of the carriage to the other, " ob, how barren." Still, barren and forbidden though this portion of Nevada may be, we pass many villages (or cities as they are called in the States) we ask how in the world do they manage to exist ? and are told that the population here is all a mining one. this portion of Nevada being one of the largest silver producing countries in the world ; there must be many thousands of people connected with these extensive mines; and as the whole of this portion of Nevada is evidently most rich in minerals, mining will be carried on profitably and give employment to a very large population for many years to come. At the different sidings along this portion of the line, we frequently saw bars of silver piled up, waiting for transmission either to New York or to San Francisco. I observed no sheep or cattle in this portion of Nevada, but thousands upon thousands of goats ; in fact, I really believe either of the two former could not exist. We have been travelling eastward however, and are now approaching Utah. The eastern portion of Nevada has much improved in appearance; we have run through some fair country for agricultural purposes; we flit by numbers of cattle in a half starved condition, and notice many hundreds lying dead along the line. There are also hundreds of antelopes grazing quietly, seeming not the least frightened as the train rushes past —in fact, so tame are they that they might easily be shot from the carriages ; this is to be attributed to a very wise bye-law of tbe railway company, making it a criminal offence to shoot any of the different animals from off the train. We pass colonies of prairie dogs, most comical looking objects, as they hurry off from the side of the railway line, and occasionally we see prairie wolves skulking away after gorging themselves on some of the dead cattle. On asking how so many cattle come to be dead along the line, I am told this last has been a more than ordinary severe winter, and that the usual loss per annum is about 8 per cent. This informotion I received from the owner of a ranch or run ; he tells me he at his last " round up" of cattle (equivalent to our muster) had 56 thousand, and that for 14 years his percentage on invested capital was 30 per cent. He told me he paid rent to no one, that his cattle had the run of over 100 miles of country. I asked could he present any other person putting cattle on to his portion of the country ? He said he could not, the land was free and open to every one ; in fact, there is so much country that there is room for many more rauches, the only difference it would make would be to cause more work at a " round up " or mustering which is done twice a to brand calves, ard in the fall of the year to draft the fat cattle to send by rail to Chicago and the Eastern States ; he told me it would be little use a complete stranger to the work attempting " ranching " in the Nevada or Wyoming country, as success depenpsin a great measure on a person understanding how to get on wifh ' the cow-boys or stock-men, who are

nearly all as savage as the Indian?, being half breeds of all nationalities. We are now entering the State of Utah, from thence through Wyoming, passing on through the State of Nebraska to Omaha. I can scarcely attempt to give an idea of the fertility of the soil and luxuriance of tbe vegetation in these three States. There are millions on millions of acres of rich soil awaiting settlement, requiring nothing but the plough to bring it into cultivation. Coal appears everywhere along the line, in many places the railway embankments being seemingly composed of it. On our way we passed many emigrant trains ; many of our passengers pitied them, but I could not do so, for I knew that in four or five years they would be thriving and substantial farmers and citizens of one of the greatest countries the sun ever shone upon. I could only admire the pluck and determination of the men and women of the different parties pushing their way slowly, [ but surely to settlement, and prosperity in the far west where there is room for them and their children to thrive, increase and multiply for many years to come. What a country this will be within the next hundred years. Railways are being pushed on in all directions, as tbey can be made much cheaper than even our common roads in New Zealand. I must without prejudice say that there is not in the whole world such a field for emigration as the western portions of the United States, every reasonable concession and facility being offered to emigrants after their arrival. I believe there were 60,000 landed here last month, and one of the large companies has entered into an engagement to land 80,000 in July. With regard to tbe settled portions of the States, I will not attempt to describe the advancement of the different places, tbe energy and skill displayed are something wonderful."