THE GREAT PACEFIC RAILWAY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 102, 22 January 1870, Page 7

THE GREAT PACEFIC RAILWAY.

A correspondent of the London " Times " gives the following graphic description of a journey which be performed on the new line of railway from Chicago to San Francisco. It is gratifying to learn from Australian telegrams, received on Monday last, that arrangements have been completed, by a colonial company, for running a line of steamers between Sydney and San Francisco, calling at New Zealand. From the shortness of this route to England, we believe it will receive that patronage of which it is well worthy : — GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LINE.

About two-thirds of the American continent are traversed by the road, which has only one line of rails. The plains which come first rise almost imperceptibly from Omaha to an altitude of 7,040 feet above the sea level in 516 miles, when Cheyenne, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, is reached. Then the ascent ib rapid to Sherman, the highest elevation, which Bancroft's G-uide, from which I take my figures, puts at 8,424 feet, 33 miles distant from Cheyenne. From Sherman there is high barren table mountain land for about 500 miles further, when the Great Salt Lake "Valley is reached, with an elevation of 4320 feet. The road rises again from this to a height of between 6000 and 7000, and then drops to about 4000 before it crosses the Sierra, *at an elevation of 7024. From the summit of this range the descent to Sacramento is rapid, the train running down mainly by its own weight to the sea level in 105 miles, some parts of this road being much steeper than others. Steam is uced for about 30 miles of this distance. With Sacramento level ground is reached, the length of the combined Atlantic and Pacific and Central Pacific lines being — from Omaha to Sacramento, 1774 miles, and to San Francisco, 1808. 154 stations are marked in my guide book, many of them being mere tanks for watering the engine, with sometimes only a tent beside them. The express trains do not stop at all of these. Nothing which deserves the name of a town, though so:re are called cities, is seen between Omaha and Sacramento. Cheyenne, the largest, has not emerged from the board and canvas stage, and divers others consist of tents. There are, however, solid erections' in several places for the purpose of the railway, and a few of these in turn will grow into permanent towns ; but a long portion of the route is so hopelessly barren that I doubt if it will ever do more than carry the track. THE START. "We left Omaha at 9 a.m. on "Wednesday, the 15th. At first the country showed much the same degree of civilisation seen the other side of the Missouri, but in about four hours the farms died away, with the exception of some adventurous dots of houses, which were dropped on the outskirts of the settlements. These, however, soon ceased, and we ran in a perfectly straight track, with an interminable row of telegraph posts by our side, across the prairie. I have already described its appearance. Its horizon so perfectly resembled the sea that it was hard to believe we were looking over a plain which in time will be ploughed and reaped. Here is a prospective cornfield some 500 miles wide and 1,000 long. It is impossible to forecast the future of Kansas, Nebraska, and the watered regions north and south of them, into which the tides of agricultural emigration is creeping from Europe and the Eastern States. New England finds for itself a still newer life in these inexhaustibly fertile territories, still mainly occupied by the Indian, the elk, and the buffalo. " A big country ours," said several of my companions to me over and over again, with an air of satisfaction which could not have been greater if they had made it themselves. But it is not the bigness which makes it precious. The British possessions to the north of it are as large. Its soil and sun and rivers give it worth and weight which the Union must be trimmed carefully to carry. Ido not say that throughout the whole route I came across any serious sentiment of independence, but .distant California, with its gold and grain, sneers and swears at greenbacks. " I know nothing," said a prosperous man to me in the train, "of promises to pay ; " and wayside fruitsellers, -to whom I, having then no specie, offered notes for pears, &c, cursed them with a will. But at present the Americans with whom I have conversed are all apparently united at heart. GOING TO BED TS THE CABS. The sun set over the prairie before our first night in the train, shinning last upon a western cloud till it looked like a firmament of gold. Lamps were lit ; cards, reading, and conversation still went on in the little slice J of civilisation which was rushing through the prairie, now stopping at a station where the soldiers who guarded it came on board, and begged for any papers we could spare, and told us how not long ago they had had a brush with the Indians, and, to use their own words, "taken 60 scalps," and then scaring antelopes into the safe darkness of distance. At last the attendant came round to convert the sofas into beds, and let down the upper bertha. It was an odd experience, that going to bed of sqme 30 ladies, gentlemen* and children in,

practically, on© room. !Por two nights I had a young married couple sleeping a foot above my nose. The lady turned in first, and presently her gown was hung out over the rail to which her bed curtains were fastened. But further processes of unrobing were indicated by the agitation of the drapery which concealed her nest. As the same curtain served for both berths — hers and mme — the gentleman held her portion together over my head when it was necessary for me to retire. At last all were housed, and some snores rose above the rattle of the train. I did not sleep much the first night, but looked over the moonlit prairie from my pillow. Before the week was spent, however, we had all become as used to the exigencies of our position as if we had Jbeen born and bred in a Pullman's car. The ladies slid out of their berths in a very tumbled toilet, and, getting out their combs, toothbrushes, and sponges, did such deliberate justice to their charms as circumstances would permit.

On Thursday, the 16th, I woke early to see the grass on the plains shorter and the ground broken . by juttings of rock. It was bitterly cold, and I was very glad of the red blanket with which my berth was furnished. I looked out of the window and saw a string of antelopes cantering off in the early sunshine. If you have never dressed on your back in a box two feet high, you can, at least, suppose that it is inconvenient to do so. BILL OP PAKE. We breakfasted at Cheyenne, and had tea, coffee, antelope, beef, mutton, trout, ham, eggs, &c. This is the current bill of fare on the line. The chops wero generally as tough as hunks of whipcord, and the knives as blunt as bricklayers' trowels. One of our hosts told me that he kept three fishermen and two hunters to provide food for the trains. I told him I wished he would keep his meat a little too. No wine or beer was seen till we reached Promontory, when Californian claret made its appearance. We had weak tea for our dinner. FELLOW TRAVELLERS. Our stopping place for breakfast was the point of departure for divers of our fellow passengers to Denver and the mines in Colorado. We took up also several miners for the Sweetwater Grold Mines in Wyoming, the stages for which left the route at Bryan. It was curious to see a rough-booted, broad-brimmed fellow strutting up and down the train with his revolver slung behind him like a short blunt tail. The breaksman of our train said to me, "Ah, Sir, we don't care for Indians ; these boys on the line are more dangerous ; you are obliged to be very careful ; there is no law here. I always carry a revolver." But, of course, if you leave them alone they don't meddle with you. I had a good deal of talk with some, and heard the ups and downs of mining adventure ; how such and such a mine, now of incalculable worth, was sold for a pistol ; how such and such members of informant's party were shot by Indians ; how he, in a place he pointed out, had himself shot so and so. These gentlemen are fountains of tobacco juice, and one in remarkably full play was pointed out to me as a leading member of his State Grovernment. I talked with him as he sat with his legs cocked up over the back of a sofa. " Been to such and such a mine, sir," said he " and it's dusty ; look here ;" and he slapped the leg of his trousers, which gave out a white cloud around him. BARREN ASPECT OP THE COUNTRY. The sun grew hot with the day, and we reached the highest elevation in 'the Rocky Mountains crossed by the train at about 11. The engine panted slowly up to this, but the road presented no great engineering difficulties. The summit reached, we took a northerly direction through a bleak country covered with a number of granite heaps, in many cases exactly resembling the tors of Dartmoor. The old emigrant road frequently showed itself to the right or the left, and we passed a toiling team of Mormons on the way to the Great Salt Lake. We got to Laramie at 20 minutes after 12, and crossing the Laramie plains, over which the Rocky Mountains showed grandly on our left, spent the rest of the day in passing through a miserable wilderness, broken by edges of strata, and occasionally spotted with the skulls, skeletons, and withered carcases of cattle that had perished in crossing them.

Towards evening patches of alkaline soil began to show themselves, and I could in some slight measure imagine the privations to which the emigrants are exposed who cross this region on foot. It is not barren, however, in all senses, for it abounds with coal, and at Carbon (well named) we fed the engine straight from the mine, shortly afterwards passing through strata of coal, which cropped out above the surface of the ground. We crossed the North Platte again near Eawlings, at 6 p.m , by a temporary bridge of timber, which looked unpleasantly fragile; but being traversed slowly, carried us well over. These trestle bridges are common on the line. They are to be replaced by firmer structures, but answer their purpose. Some creak terribly.

The view over the broken plains by moonlight, which lit up their patches of white soda Boil, was very striking, but the dust was painfully unpleasant,

The only herbage consisted of sage grass or brush. When the construction train was engaged upon this region, water had to be fetched from a considerable distance, and the names of two of the stations, " Bitter Creek" and " Salt Wells," indicated the destitution of the route. THE GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY. We woke up on Friday, the 17th, to the same high, broken, dreary plains ; but there was a little eatable grass. We passed a party of Indians with their squaws and children in full paint, and the lamest horses I ever saw in my life. The streams which we accompanied flowed down towards the Great Salt Lake, and at about 9 a.m. we reached Echo Canon, with high red granite cliffs on our right hand, snow-patched mountains having previously shown themselves on our left. Echo was soon reached, and we entered Weber Canon, at 10 a.m. This is a fine gorge. We followed a bright, tumbling stream, passing the " 1000-mile tree," and running through a gap called the Devil's Grate into a wide, flat bottom, like some parts of the Valley of the Ehone, at 11. This was the beginning of the Great Salt Lake Valley, the mountains which surround it soon showing themselves in beautiful variety of shape and colour. Here a revelation awaited us. We came shortly upon the shore of the Lake. Smiling farms, neat small stations, white and brown cottages, children selling melons and milk, squared fields, English Btacks, herds of cattle, and trim fences appeared as if by magic — a cheerful contrast to the wilderness through which we had passed. The bright blue waves of the Lake, the finely-forrqed mountains around, with villages nestling at their feet, and little streams brought down from their inner stores of fresh water, gave an air of loveliness to the whole scene. This was Mormon Land. The mountain streams led hither and thither, have made it what it is. The dreary sage grass was passing away for the cornfield, but the absence of timber still showed the natural barrenness of the land. The settlers, however, have planted fruittrees extensively, and each cottage has its orchard of pears, peaches, and apples ; and this healthy-looking, busy, English-chattering crowd at the station, with ladies in parasols and chignons, was Mormon. Say what we will about the errors of Brigham Young, I could not but honour the wisdom which had recognised the depth of soil that lay under this saltpoisoned plain, the perseverance which had fairly redeemed it with fresh water from the hills, and the perception of beauty which had led him to choose so lovely a surrounding for his converts.

We stopped at a station where a party of emigrants had just arrived. Their luggage lay on the ground. The children were playing about, the men and women standing in groups or sitting on their trunks and boxes, gazing on the bright blue lake with its fringe of mountain, which they had reached at last. It must have seemed a Paradise to them. I cannot convey to you the sense of relief with which the eye looked upon the cornfields, cottages, and glittering ripple after only two days' prospect of dry desolation. We skirted the water for a few hours, and then the wilderness came upon us again on our way to Sierra Nevada, and I think the moonlight journey of the next night and the whole of the succeeding day revealed as barren a prospect as I ever beheld. True, we ran partly by the Humboldt, which irrigates a narrow strip of land, and has a few ranches with some herds of cattle and horses by its side ; but the predominant scenery was most desolate, the river itself at last disappearing into the ground. Hour after hour we looked from our windows upon the dry mountain tops beyond it. There was no life to speak of on the plains. We saw a few herdsmen on horseback with broad hats and Mexican stirrups, and once when we stopped at a small station for water a party of hideouslypainted Indian squaws, with brown, half-naked children, came up to beg. But they begged with little energy, holding out their hands in silence for scraps of food, which they clutched after a half shy, half savage fashion. The real natives of the country appeared to be Chinese, who have built the railway eastward up to the Salt Lake. We soon found ourselves among these, and passed many of their encampments, outside of which in the evening they were cooking and chattering in groups. I should say that the upper part of Salt Lake, which is over 100 miles long and 35 wide, is skirted by unreclaimed, dreary white wastes of saline crust, similar, I imagine, to those seen on the borders of the Dead Sea. It lies at an elevation of somewhat more than 4,000 feet above the ocean level. The City of Saints lies about 30 miles off the line, and is reached by stages from Untah. A railway, however, is being built to replace the .road.

I saw no boat on the lake, but there were many gullies, and cattle grazed in the saltings, close to its edge. - It smells much like the Essex marshes, thotf^^aentleman in the train £ana sulphureous taint in tgie wm only by thinking about i#p||ju^ng, that I detected tte-sa3in€t-ocw^r" "ofthe breeze. DROPPED DT THE DESERT. We passed through a G-od-forsaken-

looting country all that night, and dropped one poor fellow near a ranche," but far from anything like a village. I did not know why the train was stopped, or I suppose I should have given him a dollar or so. I was taking my evening stroll up the train about 10 p.m. ; the moon was shining brightly, and I had stopped on the platform of one .of the forward cars, when we pulled up and set down a man with a blanket rolled up on his shoulder. I heard him say, " I've had nothing to eat since " Then he added to the guard, "Much obliged for your politeness. I've got a dollar." " That won't help you much," said the guard ; " get down," So he got down, and was off before I realized that the poor wretch had been dropped in the wilderness, having been found out in the attempt to ride without a ticket. THE WHITE PINE DISTRICT. It was bitterly cold when I awoke" next morning (Saturday) to find the train still in the same horrible desert. We parted with a crowd of miners at Elko for the White Pine district, where silv.-r can be cut out of the rock with a chisel. The riches of this district are concealed under a forbidding outside. People said that the mineral wealth of the region through which we were passing was incalculable, but comparatively untouched. Hour after hour we rushed on through the sage brush plains skirted by these precious mountains. We saw a few wandering Shoshones. The alkaline dust annoyed us again, and my finger nails by this time had become quite brittle. We were all in a wearisome humour through this day, and were glad to get to bed. ACROSS THE SIERRA. Next morning (Sunday) we began to ascend the sierra by a number of sharp curves. The steepest gradient is 116 feet in the mile, and some curves have a radius of only 600 feet. There are 40 miles of curves with a radius of less than 1000. In some places the train seemed to make a half circle. It was freezing sharply on the summit. They say that political interests have taken the line over a needlessly difficult ridge, and that a much better pass could have been found to San Francisco if Sacramento had not insisted on being made the terminus of the line.

The scenery to the right, where several lakes show themselves far below the track, is very beautiful ; but it is spoilt by the snow-sheds which cover the line for some 30 miles, and afford only glimpses of the country far beneath the traveller. These sheds are made of sawed pine timber, covered with plank, and a more convenient arrangement for a long bonfire I never saw. This part of the line must be burnt some day, as the chimney of every engine goes fizzing through it like a squib, and the woodwork is as dry as a bone. For some time from the summit we passed through mountains wholly covered with pine and cedar, and ran carefully round the heads of valleys and spurs of the range. As I have said, steam was shut off, and men were put at all the breaks. It struck me that there was greater care shown by the officials in this part of our route. The breaksman and conductors had hitherto smoked and chewed whenever they could, which was almost always ; but when I offered a cigar to a fresh Californian breaksman here, he said, "Thank you, sir, but it is against the rules to smoke while on duty." ARRIVAL AT SAtf FRANCISCO. Presently we came down to sawmills and cows, the effect being strikingly Swiss when the Chinese were not in sight. Then we reached the surface gold mines, where the soil on both sides was pitted with diggings, and many water-troughs led streams for the miners to wash for the metal. At last we got a glimpse of the yellow Californian valleys, and soon found ourselves on the flats — park-like breadths of grass and cornland, studded with scrub oaks and blazing in the sunshine. "We reached Sacramento — a hot, straggling, dusty town — between 12 and 1. Magnificent pears, grapes, &c, were offered at the left-hand window of our train, while on the right we saw the yellow river with its white steamboats. Here we were shifted to the cars of the unfinished portion of the rail, and took ten hours to reach San Erancisco, though the distance traversed is only 134 miles. Part of the route lay over a perfectly flat plain covered with cornfields and cattle, and skirted by distant hills on either side, the river lying some distance off on our right. The value of these plains is increasing yearly ; they are very extensive, one corn valley alone leading off from them with a flat bottom of 17 miles wide and more than 200 long. A few years ago these priceless fields could have been secured on the Government terms of a dollar and a quarter an acre. Not only is the soil rich and deep, but the farmer may be sure of sunshine during harvest. The corn is not even put into sheaves, but gathered up to the steam thrashing machine from where it lies. The straw is burnt, as no one thinks of using manure. Towns and villages are springing up like beds of mushrooms along the railway which traverses this precious district, and already the Califbrnian Bells his wheat at a profit in Liverpool.

The latter part of the road lies through a country of mounds, and a

ferry- is taken across the bay for halt* an hour to San Francisco. We left a straight wake iv the smooth bay, as under a glorious moon we steamed towards the twinkling lights of the city, having the Golden G-ale, or entrance to the harbour, on our right. It was past eleven when I reached the hotel, but, though so late, I got at once what the sense of a week's racket, accumulated dust and engine smoke,, had made me long for, a deliriously roomy warm bath, and enjoyed a chamber more than two feet high.