OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA. [BY J.C. FIRTH.] IV. ACROSS THE CONTINENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2254, 18 December 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA. [BY J.C. FIRTH.] IV. ACROSS THE CONTINENT.

I ritWKU.hn across the Ameiican Continent eastward, in the heats of autumn, when the crops wure l>e)n» h<irvi rt ted; westwaid on my return, whence first fro^t> and snows of winter hud chanped tho face of the country. To avoid repetition, it will he ;idv.mti»geou» to desciibe wh.it I -„iw on botli journeys indi^ciiiniiKitelv, gl incinsf. ;i« tht; fancy moves me, ;it cornfield or oichiiid, l.iden with thn nches of the year, or noting the clearer atmospheric tints, or the mountains, like white robed-sentinels, in their raiment of winter snows.

I* UK UKKVT CKVIIUJ. lUsIV. The, (Jre.it Central Divert B.i^in of tho Nmtli Aniciicin Continent is a peculiar and interesting region ; hounded on the we->t by the Sierra Xevadas, and on the east hy the Rocky Mountain*. It is ahout .")000 f^et above se,i level. Tliefjreat mountains en\ iion the level alkali plains with wall-like, rainpcirU. J«'i .in these tin; rivers run down into Likes tioin whu'h, uithone exception, they find no outlet to th« ocean. Some of thesis Likes aie flesh, their w.itern probably finding suhteiranean outlets. Other*, like the Owen'-. Lake, having no outlet, evapoiation causes them to b«* saturated with soda ; lartfe deposit-* of this mineral, in ne.ulyapnre ntate, lining the inai gin of the lake. Others again, like the Great Salt Lake, are .so .super-charged with saline matters (about 22 per cent.) by evaporation, that swimming in them is both difficult and unpleasant. The plains themselves iira covered with sage bushes (about two feet high) of several varieties, generally of a grey-green tint, and growing apart from each other, on the sandy plains.

UKN'O. At Reno we f.»uly ei»ter the f Treat Desert. Diverging to Carbon City we p.iwd through a charming \ alley, fertilised by irrigation. The district is covered with fields of emerald green alfalfa, cornfields, iind orchard-*. The run to Carson City \i \erv pleasant. Lake Washop. gliftering with a silver sheen in the morning *<un, the bright prreen fields, the orchards ladon with golden fruits, the blue mountains, the fresh bracing morning air, gave m an intense feeling of enjoyment, which the constant dweller in a ciowded city can never know, with its mingled squalor and grandeur, its impure atmosphere, and iU still more impure surrounding-.

Slf^ KH BULLETS. Some years ago the Washoo silver mines made a small .sensation. They are said to have been discovered by a party of hunters, who, running 1 short of ammunition, u->ed rtome hhinmtf leadlike mot.il, which tl)ey found outcropping at a stream, new which they had camped. The rude bullets they c ist answered their purpose well enough. Shortly after the close of the expedition, one of the number, h.uing Htrne bullet-, left in his pouch, took them to an assayer, who declared them to bp nearly pure silver. A rush followed, and Wah hoe nude for a .ihort time a .small in the mininsr world, to be soon cast into the shade by the great di«c<iveties of rich ore at Virginia City and Gold Hill.

LITTLE WHITriXUTOVS. The latter place is now like its richer neighbour— a deserted lillage. In the days of its piide, its nigged .streets were metalled with ore containing gold to the \alue of 12dol per ton, which at that time \va-< only con-tide! ed fit for macadamising the roat-is. Nobody has yet attempted to put the iti Pels through th^ l).\tterieH, hut numbers of barelegged urchins (more fortunate than Whittington in hi-* search in the streets of London), after eveiy shower of rain, secure small quantities of tho shining niotal.

CVRSON CITY. C.u'son City i-> the capital of the State of Nevada. It has a mint, an indication of the faded glories of the district ; and a State prison.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE HOCKS. At the re \r of the State prnon some int"resting \e-tiges of the l«»npr, lonjr ago, have been di.-covered. A sloping 1 hill Ims boon excavated for some two acres in extent to a depth of about fifteen feet at the rear. In the face of the .standing rock the excavations have revealed a curious veitic.il spiial pipe some inches in diameter. This .spiral c.ivity is thought to have been an .indent hot spring. This may be a very probable thooiy, looking at the eh iracter of the rock -still remaining in situ, the whole of which h.'y, I think, been deposited by the extinct hit spring, when active. The platform of rock uncovered has a gentle upward inclination to the present limit of the excavation. I obseived at various points the peculiar wuvy ripple often seen in New Zealand, where a large hot spiing .siipci charged with earthy matter, deposits it, as it spread-, in \va\y lines over a rocky platform. On this ancieiit rocky platforn a great vaiiety of distinctly-marked footprints have been ievealed by the e\ca\ation-. I noticed the footprints of m in, of the elephant, horse, deer, buffalo, and dog ; of the duck, and probably the crane, with many other impressions which I could not identify. Indians, who have seen the footpi hits, identify all but tho-e of the elephant, of which they know nothing. They bay the man has worn Indian moccassins. ! but larger than those now used by them. I All the footprints have been made when ' the mud has been soft, as may be seen by a ridge round each footprint on the side, in the direction of the course taken by the man or animals Two large indentation* in the rock wero pointed out, from one of which were taken the fossil remains of a horse, a fossil horse's tooth being shown | to me, and from the othei, if I mi-take not, t the fossil remains of an elephant had been taken. ! Ne.trlv all the fossil remain*, I tinderstood, had been removed for scientific in-ve-»tig.ition. One sm ill fo-f.il s-holl of the -i/'> of a W»v Zealand pijii, or cockle, w,»« kindly presented to me by the governor of the piison I was told th.it many of these fos-il shells had been found, all of them in a layer of softer stone (doubtless anciently mud), lying immediately upon the footprints, that is, exactly in the position in which thn Xevv Zealand Maori, who lives near a sea beach, finds the pipi to-day. I noticed the remarkable circumstance that 111 any of the footprints, more especially those of the man and animals, appeared to have been made in lines more or less converging towards the extinct hot spring, as if the v.uioiis animals had found some vir tue in the waters ; it being well known th.it horses and buffaloes travel long distances to a "salt lick." It uny also be noted that a hot spring of npout 80' Fahr. .still exists at the opposite side of the piison precinct-, making piobibly the point at which the extinct hot spring found vent, after clo-ing by its abundant depo-it, the moie ancient oiifice. Many theories have been advanced as to the date, far back in the ages, when these footprints were made. One American savant, I learnt, had fixed it at a period 242,000 j»eArs ago. This theory may be in accord with the very long periods which ge )logists are so ready to allow for the formation of some of Nature's work*. But to those who have seen in New Zealand, the very rapid rate at which hot spiings frequently deposit the e.nths and .salts with which they are sometimes saturated, a very much shorter period than 24"J,000 years would have been sufficient to deposit the 1") feet of superincumbent rock. As an in.-tuic? of the rapidity with which rock is j sometimes formed, I may state, that I have in my possession a piece of stone 2 j inches j thick which was deposited in six weeks by a warm spring struck in a deep «haft on the Thames gokltields, in New Zealand. The whole of the sunoundiug district trict affords abundant evidence of volcanic action. The gravels coming down the mountain watercouises, or tloating in them, ;ue similar in character to those found in many New Zealand streams. A gentleman at Carson City was kind enough to present to me an Indian airowheul, which he hid recently piuchasod fnun ai\ Indian. Directly I suv the wcipon, I iocogni-^1 itmaterial to be obsidian, (>\ ictly -ltiilar to the ob-idian with which we aie familiar in New Zealand.

Tiavolhns* foi hundreds of nnle« over tho desert alkali i-> very uouisotno. One day you ha\« fine du-^t inside th n car, tin* dull prey satyc bu^h outM'do. Next d.iv you have sige bu'ih outride and fine dusb inside tho railway c.ir^. Woru it not for the admirable prouxion on the Ameiican r lilroads, of double windows, ,-iband mco of wator, nnd \vell-<i])]viiutv' i .l Lvvatonc attnched to each "-K-epor" car, the cotnplexiitn of a ti.ivuller, .if l or i siunmer d,iy\ vim in this dusty lvgimi would a->uine! a saj^e bush hue, softened off with yellow dust. The Humboldt liver, alon^ which we ran several hundied tniles, tomiitiates itsoiHvso at the Hutnboldt Sink, a broad shallow lake without an outlet. What can be done with these desert and dreary plains by irrigation, is evident at the Humboldt nil way station. A small supply of water has baen brought from the newest mountains* with which a

fftvv acres have boon irrigated. Tho result is ii delightful o.i-jis of hung green. Large cotton w Mod trt'e> (our poplar), frwit trees, wtf"t il>l' s in tfieat variety, grow with vvondei ful luxuriance. It is (puto evident that, if the-»..' de- 1 1 1, sterile !a?idi could be irrigated hv u.itpr i>l>t.iiiifd. s.iv, from aitusi 'U well-*, tlmv vvidild l>ecojn« n-* fertde a- any land i;i tli- l T niti'd >St.\to-<. ft i». I think, piobiMc tl»it d^p'wits of potash l>!io-l>ii.ites, mtiat^ and .^uiphiir will yet l>p found in tln-> ic£i"n. wineh — "hun cont int cio|»pin^ h <-> impoverished the landfi oiNti>f thp Il'cky Moiintants — will Yx> of iiiu -.tim ibic v.iliu', as the raw liMtmal.s of thf* ffi ti!i-.ei >, which wiil then be iudispcu^abk'.

UEI) INDIANS. At the Humbolt stahou I noticed a few ludi.m-s, u'mnants of the tribe which, not many years ago, dominat d thii part (if the coniit i v. Th'» lank lriued men, dre«sed in a euiions medley of European clothing and Indian ornament*, had liwt all the romance of the Indi.ii) wan lor, with which Femtnore OmipiT ihul tn chatm our boyi-h imaginations. I liotifed two or threw remarkably h>tni'v>m>* Fndi.m "-..juaws," each with her )>.i)> »o-e' mw .((idleri up like miniature muiiiime* : thm lnoad, »hming, laughing f to--., -howmg th"y were live mummies at lea-t. Tin; BqiuuH, in accordance v>ith an ancient custom, had their face* painted, and if, in tins du-ty region, they wish to jK<wder th<Mi- f.tco-, vi their hair they would only be following the example of their pale-faced-pimted sisleisin San Fiancisco:a hideoui practice, by which old women are trying to make themselves look young, and \ oung women .11 « succeeding in making themselveg look old. Tt>e-f remnants »>f the race, which in timei past, bnntol the deer and buffalo, lort|>. of all tins wide region, now stood wistfully looking at the strange white man, and ,it hi-< htr.ui^e v.oids, with an impa-«-sive. far off, .ib»ent look in their jet black oyes ; as they tinned to watch the departing tuiin, the ruddy beams of evening lighting up their faces as they l«»oked to the Wi'it. The shadow of civilisation had. fallen upon their face, corrupting befoie it destroys. They are silently depaiting into the (rreat Unknown, to await *i doom in the future, moie ineiciful it may be than th it which has befallen them m the p.ist. Like the .sun, as he disappeared behind the ru,?gfd mountains, their motion-le-i-< figunn vanished oat of our sight, but unlike him, soon to return no more. AMON'N.sT IHK MOUNTAINS. All through the ni<<ht the tireless locomoti\e dragged us across the desert plain, Morning dawned upon a scene of splendid b"auty. The mountains .surrounduigtho great Central Uisin, which, on my journey East «i m »iith before, had loomed out of the hot, mist}' haze, sullen ma^e^ of dim, dusty grey now toweied above the silent desert plains, robed in pure-it white. The early sunshine tinted the loftiest linked j>eaks of the Sievras \sith rosy, radiant hues; while tho^e still in shadow, stood like white-robed maiden-., silent, pure, cold, waiting for the coming King to cast upon them his golden gaimeut. Ai the day wore on, the panorama of white-robed mountain-) changed at every league we ran. Blight in the noonday sun.shine, the giants kept their everlasting watch in .silent, silernn grandeur, looking down, all unmo\ed, on the roaring lailioad tram, as it dashed at headlong speed acro-s the desert plain; looking down, as they looked down ten thousand years ago, but on what was then an ancient inland sen, which has left no trace behind, save > lit lakes and the rugrged giants which k^pt their .vatch of ages upon its shores, as they now encircle the desert plain with their adamantine walla. Along the faces of the mountains, the .successive lines of subsidence of the ancient sea are indelibly marked in long horizontal lines ; the only remains of the long departed waters being tha small and Great Salt lake.s as we now see the'o.

JIOKMOXS. Ko description of the Great Central Desert Bismi would be complete without a notice of the Morm >n> and Salt Like City. Led aci »- the trackless wilderness by Biighiun Young, the .Mormons, or Latter Day Saint-,— ai th<\y prefer to ciilthemaulve>—many y-\irs ago, male a settlement on the shore- of thelire.it Salt Like. Thi<s sheet of water, ab nit mi; hundred miles long, i» the Dead S;i of this legion. Xear it" -aline shores Unre is no ve^tation, nor can any h\ing thing e\ist in its saturated water-. Tin 1 eoM<3ii pl ite>, and the other revelation-., -aid to have been m ide by the angel to J.i-cph Sunth, the founder of the Moriu'iun, aic j.nu[)ly the distorted imaginations of a div\uiiin#, -^elf deluded, vi>ionary en-thn-ia->t. Thaf they hh.xild ha\e been adonti.'d by -o large a number of emigrants from many European nations, is a curious lnst.inee of ttjo extent and force with which fant t-tic delu-ionb sometimes affect large -•cti'iii- of the human iace. In the ca>e of t!:c Mitiun.ih, the->o deiu-ioni ha\e been :iccon),ianied by a rem likable development of energy and indu-try. Locating theuiselvc? in a hteiile dc-crt, fat away from tnui fellow-, by bringing water from the mountains and irrigating the alkali plains, they ha\e literally changed this desert into fertile field-, and lichly laden orchards. Wherfi nothing \\a-> to be ->oen out >and and -age bush, emerald green alfalfa, wheat, vegetable-, and finite in wonderful abundance n-»w gladden the visitor.

SVi.T I. \KR CUT. Itself, emb Cornell in luxuriant trees and greeneiyof every kind, with it* miles of broad, well laid out *treet->, fringled with long avenues of trees, is a remarkable cieation of patient industry and in domitabl*: cnterpi i-e. The wor-t foituit; in the Mormon policy, is their adoption of the practice of " plm.dity of \vi\eO This I understood, wv> not one of the "principles"' of the Church of the Litter Day Saints, as laid down bv Joseph Smith, but vva'-a "practice intioduced by Bugham Younsj. It is this practice .-f the p!>u jhty (.[ w he-, uhich the United State- people have fully and rightly deteunmed to put do.vn by torce of law. Already prosecutions have been instituted again-t pioniinent Mormons, who have more than one wife, some of whom are now serving a &i.\ months' term in the penitentiaiy, whilst other leading men are hiding from the officers of the law. I pointed out to Mime of their principal men, that Natural L.iw was duectly opposed to a man having more than one wife, inasmuch as Nature ha* provided a general equality of the -exes at birth throughout the animal world ; for instance, broadly speaking, the births in herds of cattle, in Mock- of -heep, or in the human lace, show a general equality of males and females, with perhaps a slight preponderance of females. Under this btate of things I a-ked them to con.-ider, that if one half, or one third of the men in a community were to absorb all the women for their wives, the remainder of the men must of necessity be deprived of wives altogether. In no ca^-e were they able to assail the position, that, in their practice of a plurality of wives they were infringing a great natural law, and were, besides provoking the ju«t enmity of their own fellowciti/,ens, and of every right-thmkiug man in every country.

A SIS-SET GI.OKY. Returning We>t, we again struck the Hunibuldt livei ; its com»e, as I ha\e said, dotted with hugated, golden orchaids, and fields of alfalfa (lucerne), preen as emerald* in the giey, sombre setting of the desert plain. A sunset we reached the Humboldt Sink, which I hue aheady described as a large >heet of water lecemng the waters of the Hunib.ildt rnei. Ko outlet from the Sink vi Lake exists, the water* sinking and going down below.no one knows how or wheie. Ko -cene could be more enchanting than that presented to us through tho pure, translucent atmosphere of this elevated region. \ rlor.vlless day was drawing to .«, clo-ae. A^ tho >uu approached 'he mountain summit^ in the west, the lake lay placid as a mil i or at their feet, 1 effecting at \anous points the i icli loseate and purple hues, *X- *,n-uius, v- thc^had'»%\> lengthened into a hundi •■ I shades of violet and blue; as the angle I 01 the (iist nice varied, every snowy peak and soluble ia\iue of the >c>rred and rugged tiMuntmus displaying' more bnlbaut gleams or (leeper shadows. A few moments before Min-ot, the departing ravs> seemed to roncenti.itc on the centre of the archke mountain cii.vii, bla/iug for a moment with a brilliant golden splendour of intense and exquisite hwuty Sweeping fiom west to east, the nch purple and \ermillu.n tints lingrred as t ! K-y .swept from base to summit. For one iust uit, the- shining Ukc and glowing mountains piesented a scene of such peerles3 ir-plendoui as no jieu l in describe or imaginatton "onv." i\e. And then, mgged mountains, pi icid 1 tlxc, and deseit planih disappeared, I as <-m- tiL-n engine dragged us into the deepening gloom of night. X(»ik. — In paper X'<». 111. for "fern-cUd hills' read "pine clad hills."