I GEORGE W PINE, (See Page 349.) . . BEYOND THE WEST; AH ACCOUNT OF TWO YEARS’ TRAVEL IN THAT OTHER HALF OF OUR GREAT CONTINENT FAR BEYOND THE OLD WEST, ON THE PLAINS, IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, AND PICTUR- ESQUE PARKS OF COLORADO, ALSO, CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF NEW MEXICO, ARI20NA, WYO MING, MONTANA, IDAHO, EASTERN AND WESTERN ORE- GON, UTAH, NEVADA, AND THE SUNSET LAND, CALIFORNIA THE END OF TOE WEST. ITS PRESENT CONDITION, PEOPLE, RESOURCES, SOIL, CLIMATE, * MOUNTAIN RANGES, VALLEYS, DESERTS, MORMONS, GREAT SALT LAKE, AND OTHER INLAND WATERS, THE G R E A T C O N T I N E N T A L R A I L R 0 A P , ra«ETH£:H WITH THE REMARKABLE MINERAL DEPOSITS, AND MOST WONDER- FUL NATURAL SCENERY IN THE WORLD, BOTH ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE. BY GEORGE W. PINE. FOURTH EDITION , REVISED AND ENLARGED. BUFFALO , N. V. PUBLISHED AND PRINTED BY BANE R, JONES & CO. 220 & 222 WASHINGTON STREET. 1873 . Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by GEORGE W. PINE, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. « ' 0 PREFACE. Twenty odd years ago, little was known of that somewhat mysterious part of our continent, lying far beyond our ideas of the Old West, except as the far-off land of the Indian, the hunter and trapper, the furs and the home of the buffalo. One great blank book — mostly without a preface — with a few scratches, here and there only, on the title page. But how diligently and understandingly the types were made, set up and electrotyped, within a few years past. We see the now unabridged edition, bound in a style more useful than ornamental, (not yet gilt edged,) but nicely sprinkled and held together with the great civilizer — iron rails. As all the families of men have an interest in the occupation and development of this, now our New West, everybody wants a volume of this — Na- ture’s remarkable edition. To supply a demand which now exists for cheap, comprehensive and reliable information, with regard to that other half of our great continent, lying be- yond the Old West, this work has been prepared and is- now placed before the reading community. In the spring of 1865, the author found himself on the west bank of the Missouri River, at Atchinson, seated in an 1 • Pit EF ACE. overland stage for the Pacific. Having made exten- sive travels in various parts of the country during the season, he took the steamer from San Francisco to Panama, and from Central America to New York. A year and a half of home life, in the picturesque and historic Valley of the Mohawk, had served only to increase a desire to revisit these vast and interesting regions; so full of geographical and historical infor- mation ; so replete with scenes of wonder and beau- ty ; sublime, yet ugly ; magnificent, yet rough ; beau- tiful, yet mean ; which can be found in no other coun- try — somewhat of the kind the Grecian poets gave a local habitation on the northern coast of Africa, as peculiarly the unknown land of mysteries. “ Here they placed the delightful gardens of Hespe- rides, whoSe trees bore apples of pure gold ; there dwelt the terrible Gorgon, whose snaky tresses turn- ed all things into stone; there the invincible Hercu- les wrestled and overthrew the mighty Antaeus ; there the weary Atlas supported the ponderous arch of Heaven on his stalwart shoulders.” This poetical effusion, unbridled as it is, has a coun- terpart in many places through this other part of our country. The many peculiarly interesting objects, its wonderful formations ; its mysteries, scattered ev- erywhere on the surface, and also imbedded in the granite hills, furnish abundant material to interest the curious, and to demand cf the intelligent traveler, . PREFACE. ^ and the most scientific, the profoundest knowledge and remain mysteries still. Also, Nature’s great banking systems, in the deep recesses of the mountain ranges, where the precious metals are deposited quite past finding out by hu- man intelligence. Indeed, very much of the country is yet Nature’s wide-spread blank book, to be filled up by future generations. With all our facilities of travel and general information, it must be a long time before our people can have an adequate conception of these vast regions of our goodly heritage. No traveler’s pen can properly describe many of the ob- jects presented here. The reader can have at most but the best efforts of an honest purpose. Again : In the early spring of 1867, we crossed the muddy Missouri at Omaha, and viewed with renewed pleasure the great, shining face of the setting sun, as it went down behind the Rocky Mountains. The steamship of the desert was now ready to start on the world’s highway — the change was an agreeable one, after mv previous experience — but the road was finished only two hundred and fifty miles, at the end of which the old stage was ready to impress upon our mind and body more firmly the hard expe- rience ot time gone by. I had seen just enough of this other half of our remarkable continent, to in- crease a desire to largely extend my travels and be- come more acquainted with the general characteristic features of the country. Vi PREFACE. The substance of the knowledge thus acquired dur ing these travels, is now offered to the reader — in as condensed a form as the limits of this book permit- ted — hoping that you will be interested in its con- tents, and your knowledge of the country enlarged ; if so, the object of the author will have been accom- plished, and his years of travel and deprivation, away from civilization much of the time, will have been amply rewarded. We have not designed to make a connected travel, to fill up valuable space with the multiplicity of little domestic matters, which are con- stantly occurring while journeying in the oriental way, as those have done who have written their trav- els over this country. We have purposed to give substance, rather than lengthy descriptions ; to abbreviate sufficiently to make a book that would come within the means of all who wish to read. Not, however, unconscious of inability to do justice to such an undertaking, I leave the work to secure the favor which earnest endeavor ever receives from a discriminating public. o AUTHOR. Herkimer, August, 1870. Pagb Portrait op Author, Frontispiece, Summit Tunnel Sierras, ....... 849 Omaha, 49 Montgomery City and Mount Lincoln, ... 85 Buffalo Hunt, ... 180 Beaver Springing a Trap, 168 Indian Medicine Man, 268 Bear Taking Meat from Under the Head of the Hunter, 280 Brigham Young, 310 Mormon Tabernacle, 322 Lake Tahoe, 382 Sacramento, . 388 VIII LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Mammoth Tree, 33 Ft. Diameter and 450 Ft. High, 399 Foot op Trail— Yo- Semite, 409 * Yo Semite Falls, 413 Geyser' Springs Hotel, . 420 Witch’s Caldron, 422 Crystal Chapel, .... ... 442 The Pulpit, 443 Sea Lions and their Young upon a Large Rock— The. Entrance op San Francisco Bay, . . . 46S Pelican Island, Opposite Golden Gate, . . Finis . CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Pagb Introductory Remarks, 13 CHAPTER II. The Discovery of the American Continent, . . 16 CHAPTER III. its First Settlement, 38 CHAPTER IV. Where is the West? 44 CHAPTER V. The North-West Passage Discovered, ... 48 CHAPTER VI. Omaha and Nebraska, 49 CHAPTER VII. The Plains, 51 CHAPTER VIII. Denver City, . 56 CHAPTER IX. The Mountain Ranges, 58 CHAPTER X. Ascent of Pike’s Peak, 00 CHAPTER XI. The Road to South Park, 77 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER Mount Lincoln, .... XII. 85 CHAPTER The Middle Park, . XIII. 90 CHAPTER The North Park. XIV. 97 CHAPTER Colorado’s Mining Resources, XV. 101 CHAPTER XVI. Agricultural Resources of Colorado, 111 CHAPTER Climate of Colorado, . XVII. 116 CHAPTER XVIII. New Mexico Generally, 119 CHAPTER The Buffaloes, XIX. 130 CHAPTER XX. Arizona Boundaries, Early History, Physical Aspect, Agricultural and Mineral Resources, . 143 CHAPTER Trapping Beaver, . XXI. 167 CHAPTER From Denver to Cheyenne, . XXII. 175 CHAPTER XXIII. Wyoming Territory — Her Legislature the First to Extend to Woman the Elective Franchise, . 170 CHAPTER XXIV. Montana, Agricultural and Mining Resources, Histo- ry and Climate, 183 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XXV. Idaho, Shoshonee Falls, Boise City, Idaho City, Owy- hee Quartz Mills, and Characteristic Features of the Country, 201 CHAPTER XXVI. Eestern Oregon, Soil, Climate, Resources and Gen- eral Features. . 211 CHAPTER XXVII.* Western Oregon, Portland, Wallamet Riyer and Val- ley, its Unusual Pjkoductiveness, Heavy Forests, Extensive F sheries, Climate, Scenery, Columbia River, 224 CHAPTER XXVIII. The Louisiana Purchase, 251 CHAPTER XXIX. Indian Tribes, Character and Habits, .... 256 CHAPTER XXX. Indians make a Raid on the Road, A Week at Elkhorn Station, The Hunter and Trapper, Incidents in his Life, 271 CHAPTER XXXI. The Road from Cheyenne, Church Bute, up and oyer the Wilderness of Mountain Ranges, Upon the Summit, Down the Pacific Slope, Remarkable Rock Formations, Echo Canyon, Weber Valley, Mormon Settlements, 290 CHAPTER XXXII. The Union Pacific Company, Early History, Construc- tion and Completion, 341 CHAPTER XXXIII. The Central Pacific Company, Origin and Construc- tion, 347 xil CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXIV. Connecting the two Roads, 351 CHAPTER XXXV. Nevada, Mines and Mining, Agricultural Products and Physical Aspects, 359 CHAPTER XXXVI. Journey to the Hot Springs, Road to Salt Marsh, and a Mountain of Salt 375 CHAPTER XXXVII. Sierra Nevada Mountains, Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake, Suffering of Emigrants, Sacramento, . . . 382 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Flowers, 390 CHAPTER XXXIX. Mammoth Tree Grove,. , 396 CHAPTER XL. Yosomite Valley, 407 CHAPTER XLI. A Visit to the Geysers, 419 CHAPTER X L 1 1 . The Quicksilver Mine, tiie Largest in the World, . 424 CHAPTER XLIII Biru’s-eye View of California, . . . 448 BEYOND THE WEST. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Kind reader, we introduce you to our new book, hoping you will be sufficiently interested to read it through and not fall out along the way, out of sleep and out of temper, before the journey is accom- plished. Although some of its pages may seem un- interesting, yet the varied and important subjects presented to the traveler all over the great plains and mountain ranges of the western half of our new West is such as to command the careful investiga- tion of all our people. Much of the country is so wonderfully made up, composed of such a variety pf material, and the native tribes which inhabit it are still so mysterious, that it is impossible for the traveler’s pen to put upon paper such descriptions as will give the careful reader an adequate knowledge of this half of our continent, which is destined to be a peculiar and very important place on the now glori- ous future of this country. If by writing this book 14 BEYOND THE WEST. the information of the reader has been enlarged — . stimulated to more fully understand and appreciate this goodly heritage of ours, the primary object c* the writer will have been accomplished, and his long mountain wanderings, away from civilization, will not have been to no purpose, but amply rewarded. This may, with some propriety, be called the traveling era, and it is interchanges of individual acquirements which make up and characterize, to some extent, this present age. With the present increased facilities for travel, everybody, together with his wife and family, are acquiring traveled knowledge. Indeed, if all trav- elers do not write a big book , it is not for want of inter- esting material out of which to make it, or the lack of ability, (at least in their own estimation,) but on account of an over load of more pressing business — a want of time. Those who have time and money may visit whatever country and places they may wish to see, but they are very few when compared with the whole. Most people have their traveled information brought to them in their own homes while performing their various vocations, for a small consideration they have at command the traveler’s accumulated knowledge which perhaps he has spenl years of hardship, deprivation and peril to acquire While it is desirable that all our people should in INTRODUCTORY. 15 form themselves, make a familiar acquaintance with the Old World, yet how much more important that all should become, somewhat at least, familiar with their own native Republican laud first. There are very many who travel for years in for- eign climes who have never seen any part of the great western half of the American continent. All 6uch of our readers are cordially invited to take our humble conveyance and go with us by rail, by wag- on occasionally, by pack horse and mule, and many times by packing ourselves ; as some portions of tho road is inaccessible to any four-footed animal, it can be attained only by the persevering traveler on foot. Many of the most remarkable places would be missed if not made in this way, where the natural elements long centuries ago have done their wonderful work — beautiful, yet rough ; magnificent, yet ugly ; and as a writer said of Moscow, “ Magnificent, yet mean ” CHAPTER II. THE DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. Kind reader, as, our outfit (alwa3 T s familiar on the borders of civilization, beyond which the traveler must carry everything he needs on the journey) as yet is so incomplete, and being far away from an outfitting centre, we are quite unprepared to start on the long travel before us, consequently you are invited first to go with me through an address on the Discovery of the American Continent ; after which, should we be in good humor with each other and ourself, we will give our friends and rela- tives a long farewell for the next year and a half and begin our travel beyond the old West and where the new begins, and journey towards the setting sun to where that great luminary seems to retire for the night — far out in the Pacific Ocean. Our theme includes a mcst prominent period in human affairs — is full and rich with interesting useful thought. The discovery of America and the cir- cumstances with which it is surrounded may be con- sidered one of the most extraordinary events in the annals of the world. As memory binds together time’s different peri- DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 17 ods, we stop to linger around this most wonderful of histories. Strange, indeed, that this great conti- nent should have lain undiscovered for so many cen- turies, but the mass of mankind had made but little improvement over the darkness of the middle ages. The navigators of those times felt themselves safe only as they crept along the frequented coast. But to turn their little insecure vessels boldly to the West — to embark upon an unknown ocean, not be- lieved to have an outer shore, to pass that bourne from which no traveler had ever returned, and from which experience had not taught that any mariner could return — was beyond their feeble comprehen- sions ; but the fullness of time had come. The Em- pires of the first and oldest portions of the human family must flourish and fall before the great seals of creation are broken. They must show what they could do for the amelioration of the human race, be- fore Providence unlocks the great mystery of His mysterious creation. A noble man, who can go out boldly and with con fidence, on untrodden, unknown regions, either on 6ea or land, is like the great luminary when com- pared to a small planet. The magnanimous Ruler of the Universe seems to bind up great events in the lives of some men. Those individuals who stratify the space of time IS BEYuNj; .111!, WEST. between the beginning and end of mortal life the fullest, with the very best material for working days, and furnishes the parlors in their bosoms with that kind of furniture which has not gone out of fashion for the last eighteen hundred years — not like some in these more favored times, who send their cards to church whilst they remain at home — are the property of time, and their names, of right, ought to be engraven on the record of every age and in every clime — living members of the world's best order of nobility. tie is a strong man, with a vigorous brain, that can pull out as a telescope its intellectual powers and lift the uncertain thick, dark vail which hides distance and see the end. He is truly a great man who can look through the age in which he lives, make excursions into the unknown future and hunt up the distant hiding places of creation. Providence seems to have hold this great heritage of America for a new home, upon which to establish more securely than had been done in the Old World the ennobling and underlying principles of a higher civilization, where the different races of mankind could have a home, and worship him according to the dictates of an enlightened judgment, freed from eastern human restraints. Send off the mind, that great mystery of our being, over the solid, much DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT 19 trodden Appian way, into the regions of the past and bring a sympathizing spirit back to view to go with us to discover our then unknown land. Discovery is the peculiar subject of our hero — the chosen theater of his intellectual dominion. A great soul has arrived on earth, fashioned after a model none but an Almighty hand could make, whose life is to change the old channel of the hu- man race. Nature mysteriously brings upon the theater of the world at times mysterious men to ac- complish some of her great purposes. Sometimes a great soul seems to come forth like an exhalation from the interior of the earth. Columbus educated himself for his business, this made him strong and decided in his opinions. Formidable difficulties be- set him from the first, such as no other man could have overcome at that time. His far-reaching pur- pose looked through the twilight of his day and im- parted to his acts a perseverance that no obstacles could impede, a true man whom no prosperity could intoxicate, no disappointment discourage — having a large supply of the indispensable article called energy di\ine ; a boldness of determination that never hesi- tated when the judgment was decided ; a deep love for Christianity ; an incorruptible integrity ; a love for faithful duty that never grew cold. Columbus had impressed on his mind the real image of a new 20 BEYOND THE WEST. country in the West. No old nurse or son of Escu- lapius was skillful enough to keep the image asleep in such a lodging place. This gave purpose to life, his mind had long flowed and made a deep channel in this direction. The marvelous tenacity with which he clung to the object he had set in his heart is without a parallel, and will go down through the long tracks of time. No obstacles can stop a lofty purpose, or outward darkness quench the light of a great, a noble soul, undismayed by difficulties, unchanged by change of fortune. Although every- thing grew dark and discouraging around him, he showed the same unaltered purpose. His penetra- ting vision ranged through the whole horizon of possibilities to seek a gleam of hope beyond the dark clouds about him, to illumine his desires. Though everything grew dark and darker around him, he showed the same unaltered purpose. He had established in his own mind some of the now settled principles of astronomy that the earth is a globe, capable of being circumnavigated. This fruitful truth revealed itself to the intelligence of Columbus as a practical fact — an original idea with him — for it had not, at that time, been incorporated into the general intelligence of the age in which he lived — an illustrious example of the connection of scientific theory with great practical results. He DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 21 inferred the existence of a continent in the Western Hemisphere, by considering the necessity of a counterbalance to the land in the Eastern. His reflection and knowledge enabled him to dis- cover the constructive principle, that the A II- Wise Maker of this, our globe, had properly balanced it. You see the necessity — a wise omnipotent arrange- ment by the great master mind — that, there must be an equilibrium for the purpose of revolving. We have here intellect scientifically trained into system ; not the dreams of a brain put into action by ever-shifting, half-formed thought. The im- pressed image knocked constantly at the door of enlightened reason to be let loose and discover the New World. After the great discoverer matured his plan he never spoke in doubt, but with as much cer- tainty as if his eyes had beheld his darling object. Like a firm rock that in mid-ocean braves the war of whirlwinds and the dash of waves, he read, as he supposed, his contemplated discovery, as foretold in holy writ : that the ends of the earth were to be linked together, and that the magnificent work of Providence, through the mystic tissue of the uni- verse, would in time interweave all the human famity with the thread of universal Christianity, and wrap up the nations in its broad folds. Consequently we find him supplicating, in tones of humiliation, the 22 BEYOND THE WEST. different thrones of Europe ; traveling on foot, hav- ing all his worldly goods with him ; despised by the pretended philosophers, laughed at by the ignorant, and trifled with by the arrogance of ministers and their dependents. But he was independent, at the same time dependent ; never compromised himself or his principles a right with a wrong. Perhaps he lived at that distant period in sight of independence, — as near the Fourth of July as many in these more favored times. Ultimately he obtained an interview with the Court of Spain, who favored his plans enough to call together the most of the scientific professors, that he might have an opportunity to lay his plans before them. At this time Spain was at the summit of her greatness, and had her greatest men. When ex- plaining his plans of discovery to the philosophers, and that the earth is a revolving globe, which might be traveled round from east to west, “ Why !” said they, “ what a mystical theory, contradicted by every step we take upon the broad, flat earth which we daily tread beneath our feet.” To them it was vis- ionary, a vast nothingness. They came together with doubt in both hands — could not travel out of their old stratified beliefs. To assert that there were inhabitable lands on the other side of the globe, would be to maintain that DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 23 I there were people not descended from Adam, as it was impossible for them to have passed the inter- vening ocean. Some of his learned hearers were convinced by his powerful reasoning, and all were warmed by his eloquence, but opposed his plan and object, and his long cherished enterprise swung far back into the old regions of unbelief and unpopularity. The great truth rejected, lay discouraged at their feet, believing, as they did, that the old rusty lantern of the past in their hands threw light on all the distant corners of creation. Nevertheless, the great fact had a living home in the capacious min’d of Co- lumbus — the home growth of his own intellect — clothed with warm and living thought. He picked up and put together his oft broken hopes, and gath- ered up again his energies for another effort. “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” Consequently we find him supplicating the different thrones of Europe, at a time when kings consider ed themselves the wisest of mortals upon earth. Eight een years of weary negotiation had failed to procure for Columbus the sanction and aid of a government, — eighteen years of despairing solicitations and weary with long journeyings. Amid all his trying circumstances he never consented to compromise his superior manliness, or accept of any terms not BEYOND THE WEST. 24 strictty honorable to himself, and worthy of his magnanimous purpose. His wonderful perseverance under such opposing circumstances during those long and gloomy years, will descend in the undying archives of time. Finally, the penetrating vision and magnanimity of Queen Isabella resolved to favor the undertaking, and requested that Columbus might be sent to her. Yet she hesitated, knowing that her husband, who would be “ Lord and Master,*' opposed the enterprise, and that the royal treasury was near- ly drained by long and expensive war. But with true woman’s earnestness of purpose and grandeur of soul, she said : “ I undertake the enterprise for my own crown, regardless of an opposing husband or anything else, and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds.” He who will oppose “Woman’s Rights” (when right) hath no soil in his heart for the growth of just and liberal principles. Let us take through tickets — -not to cross the Continent — but the great unknown ocean spread out by God around the globe, not to separate, but to unite the Human Family, be- ing the only means of intercourse between regions so distant. We go beyond the then known limits of the world to discover and make known to the Old World the New. Leaving behind our agreeable homes, with all their happy surroundings, our ex- DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 25 panded ard expansive country, homes of healthful millions — the growth of Columbus’ genius — we see tbe master spirit foreshadowing the might}' enter- prise, carefully and systematically arranging his business, preparing his little fleet to “quit the still shore for the troubled wave,” and brave the perils of unknown seas. All arrangements completed, three small caravels, or fishing boats, a hundred and twenty men, we behold the great leader, the gray- haired sire, with eye intent, and on the visioned future bent, go forth on his towering ambition, the compass his only pilot, the constellated heavens his only chart, to realize that magnificent conception in which his creative mind had planted the germs of a New World ; passing rapidly from the then crowded hive of the Old World, like a meteor, to the wonder-stricken gaze of man, now broken away from the limits of the Old World and launched into the untrodden regions of the mysterious ocean and the unknown future — the polarstar his watch tower, and the crystal eyes of heaven to guide him. He traveled away from the then dull mass of mankind on the strong vehicle of a well balanced, penetrating intellect towards that undiscovered country (as all supposed) from which no traveler returns. Leaving family, friends, country, all the home-rooted ties that hover in the human heart, behind— every thing be- -r DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 27 gathered at his heart. The streams of life within him gave signs of woe — that all was lost. Loudly blew contending tempests on his devoted head ; great troubles at hand and none to help. All seemed lost and far away from their native land. “ Return/ 7 return/ 7 went over the then wilderness of waters. Columbus 7 lengthened shadow over the boundless waters moved beneath the si 1 very-curtained clouds, lost and left in loneliness, deep waters and difficulties thick all around, each moment big with trouble. He rode on contention and directed the storm when hope had turned to despair in every heart but his. But his great undertaking shall be finally accom- plished because written on mid-face of heaven, where all the world might see it. There are occa- sions in which a great soul lives years of wrapt enjoyment in a moment. His great soul then caught the treasure it through life had sought. His darling object was fixed in the capacious recesses of his mind. That eye, that life which had long lived in the unknown West to the Old World, saw a far off moving light. As the hands on the immutable clock in the ethereal dome marked the long hours of that never-to-be-forgotten night, when the Old World first saw the New, moved slowly on time 7 s face to him. First of all we behold the great discoverer of Amer- 28 BEYOND THE WEST. ica standing on his storm-shattered bark, the shades of night having fallen on the sea — yet no man sleeping. The dashing billows of alternate hope and despair rolled through and convulsed his own troubled bosom. Extending forward his weather- beaten form, straining westward his anxious eyes until Heaven at last granted him a moment of rap- turous delight, and seemed again to fill the world with new delight — with joy and gladness in blessing his vision with the sight of the before unknown world. The great elemental mystery of a New World was settled. Land swelling up from the great ocean, clothed in the habiliments of nature’s richest beauty ; glorious morning sunshine playing in the green tops of trees ; spring abroad among the branches ; homes for happy life sitting in the distant valleys of perpetual green ; a beautiful island, as if direct from nature’s great mirror and dressing room, magnificent and beautiful, full of tropical fruit, like a continental orchard. Upon landing Columbus threw himself upon his knees, kissed our common mother earth, returned thanks to God, followed by all his companions, ardent in their expressions of repentance and admi ration. Then and there the first Christian bent the knee to thank the Sovereign Ruler and Maker of the universe for the extension of the earth. He then DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 29 struck a chord that vibrated anew around the inner- most heart of the Old World, and pulsated for the first time around the earth — held up the mirror which shows every soul its own face. That morning, like the morning of creation, stood forth an additional world as to mankind, in the pres- ence of her family, the twin sister of the Eastern Continent, as sisters of one house are alike, looking up through her tears, raising her head high above the surrounding mighty waters. Thus addressed Colum- bus : “ I have sought you — have been looking far away over the broad ocean since the great I Am said , 4 Let the waters be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear.* ” Then I came up from the innermost caverns of the deep waters, and in my unimproved home I welcome you, notwith- standing the deep breathing of subterranean life and the natural elements have changed my once smooth, unwrinkled cheek of girlhood, and left deep and wide century furrows on my face. Yet I wel- come you, for by your instrumentality my old con- stitution will be made to smile with youth and beauty. I will watch over and be kind to you and yours, will exercise parental care, and we part not. “ Whom God joins together shall never be severed/’ through all the crooked ways and dark paths the human family have to tread. With a warm, pub 30 BEYOND THE WEST. sating heart I will give the exuberant bosom of a common mother to all the families of men who will come unto me. With arms extended, and with wel- come hands, I will take my legitimate children and nourish them upon my capacious bosom, for they will appreciate my blessings, and draw from me that best of life that maketh children men, intelligent and free, grow great, prosperous and happy in my approving smiles. I will add to the jeweled diadem of the Old World a central star, arouud which in time all the old crowned continents will revolve and bathe in my radiating light, and happy life will look where I live for higher types of life, from the Arctic circle to the tropics, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. The old rheumatic, life-destroying systems of extending empire and propagating religion by fire and sword through rivers of human blood, trampling the fairest field in every century into bloody mire by mighty armies, here found an antidote, a heart felt counteracting influence, in our more congenial soil for working life. The gray-haired customs of the people in the old countries, shut up like oysters in themselves, crawled out of their century-worn shell into a better life. This the strongest wedge that ever split the knotty block of blind intolerance. This the heavy weight which DISCOVERY uF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 31 pulled old empires dovvo. Inquisition can never more seal thy lips, thou new civilization; more en- lightenment ; upward and onward around the uni- verse. The art of printing being discovered about this time, the storehouses of antiquity were opened to the world — the accumulated minds of the past had a “Rip Van Winckle” resurrection and came forth from dusty alcoves, and again spoke to living, acting men. The old, grown together, matted web of ages, wo- ven far back in the dark chambers of the past, began to untwist — and the great Reformation about that time aroused a new, upward and onward movement in all human affairs. From that time there arose a more liberal knowledge — a before unknown light penetrated the twisted meshes of human imperfec- tions, and began to cast off the scale of crushed habit and to develop a better growth of the nobler, the higher part of intelligent existence. The old em- pires of men were soon to plant in this new land the elements of the highest civilization the world had yet known. The human heart began to vibrate anew ; the sharp edge of independent thought and action struck quick and deep, to plant the germs for a more enlightened empire in our rich and beautiful but unsubdued land. You have, no doubt, heard of Young America. He is fashionably built, high-fed, 32 BEYOND THE WEST. high hearted, but gets the dyspepsia iu his neck-tie and the reputation of being headstrong, because he carries his head on his shoulders instead of under his arm, and feels the pulse-beatings of the world’s mighty heart. The dictates of silent nature would rebuke us were I to leave the great discoverer here — would call us ungrateful. We pass that period of his life which shows how soon a change may come over life’s resplendent day, caused by the inhumanity of a usurping commissioner. When the noble-minded Isabella heard how he had been inhumanly treated and the royal authority abused, her large heart filled with mingled sympathy and indignation, for he had been sent from the land he discovered to the Court of Spain in irons. When he saw sympathizing tears in the eyes of his open-handed, warm-hearted Queen, he fell at her feet'. There is a gilded cord of sym- pathy running through, and throwing its folds about the citadel of life in every bosom that vibrates with music to faithful duty and repeated kindness — knit- ing, as with golden fingers, a silken web around troubles. Columbus made other discoveries and explora- tions which were perilous and lengthy ; so that when he ultimately arrived in Spain, his patroness having finished her earthly work, his income not DISCOVERY OP THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 33 having been paid, he had no home but an inn ; and poor, with health impaired by his long and weary care, he soon foun 1 his earthly end approachin j. He put in order all his worldly affairs, and made arrange- ments to have the Holy Sepulchre rescued'from the infidels. He left none of life’s duty unperformed. He made Christianity a centre around which all things took their place. With a few devoted friends about him, his great soul traveled to another clime \ — went to the Eternal Father’s home to fest, full of honors and full of years, leaving this our country as his enduring monument. He had done enough of this world’s hard work, contended manfully with the vicissitudes of human life. He acquired his honors contending, not on battle’s crimsoned field, but against poverty, hardship and remarkable circum- stances amid the opposition of his fellow men. Ilis life furnishes an illustrious example for men who will come out from the self-same bog-trot all the year round, and assume the execution of high undertak- ings and the fulfillment of a noble purpose. He never stood on the narrow ridge of self, but graded it down to a proper level. He never sought wealth, but developed himself to the service of mankind. “Then I pray thee write him as one who loved his fellow men.” A wrong trembled like a guilty thing, surprised in his presence, for he stood on the 34 BEYOND THE WEST. # heights of honor, and virtuous acts always felt his fostering hand. He seemed to have been designed to fill up a great vacancy in the round of usefulness high Heaven bestows. A great man, indeed, who has the eternal principles of true manliness in his very being, who can say I am a man in all the noble thoughts which that word conveys — nothing that is human is foreign to me. .1 represent philanthrophy and morality not in a stolen coat. Genius and unflinching resolves, when concen- trated upon one object, seldom fail to accomplish magnificent results. You see the grateful nation for whom he had labored bearing his remains to the land he first discovered, and on the transfer of that island to the French in 1795 we again see them bearing his remains to Cuba and depositing them in the great Cathedral at Havana, in the wall on the right side of the grand altar, with all the national display due to departed greatness, amid the city’s roaring cannon and surge of men. You will remem- ber that he was sent home degraded, in ignomin- ious chains, from this very port from which his re- mains were taken. But posterity, ever just to true greatness, thus verifies the great principle that a life filled with commendable merit never fails to be rewarded by the commendation and applause of pos- terity; or as the acorn drops to earth unseen, let DISCOVERT OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 35 Time’s unearthing hand cast off i ts shell, when the real life within comes forth and we behold the trunk, the branches, the foliage, the solid oak. True merit — 9 real greatness — outlives calumny and receives its glorious rewards in the admiration of after ages. Considering the time in which he lived, he was like our own greatest of men — who was “ first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen/’ — the embodiment of honor, the repository of justice. They drank largely of the stream of life that ever flows through the Eternal City, bearing in their bosoms the crown jewels of immortality. But few lives are bound closer together with sealed gold. The one gave to the world the American Continent, a new home for the nations ; the other planted deep in our land Republican Government, the germs of true happiness, and unfurled truly “ Freedom’s ban- ner,’ wrapped us up in its silken folds, and left the trophies of enduring fame down in the deep recesses of our national heart. Their deeds of lofty purpose will hang on the ends of time, covered with wreaths of immortal honor. As certain products of the earth are the natural growth of peculiar soils at particular times, so some men emanate almost necessarily out of certain conditions of civilization, from the culmina- ting point of producing causes, and stand forth as the representatives of the times in which they live. 36 BEYOND THE WEST. We admire and praiae that individual who answers best the great end for which he was created. We admire that tree, that vine which bears fruit the most rich and abundant. That star which is most useful in the heavens is the one we admire the most. We have in the character of our subject a represent- ative man — fully developed and meritorious, but long since enrolled among the noble&t of the dead. Rest in peace, great Columbus, thy fame circles the tem- ple of memory high up. Thy name will ever be mentioned with honor ; it is like that of a household idol in the nation’s citadel of life, and will be handed down with reverence, will live as long as there is an American race living in waving fields, with groves of happiness between. Far be it from my purpose to adorn our subject with a chaplet plucked from the domain of others, when we say his far-reaching intelligence, his noble character, is a full pattern for an^ age and country. He wears not borrowed hon- ors ; he will ever receive the grateful respect of a grateful people. Go back to the old empires, examine the honored names, the benefactors of earlier days ; turn ovei the records of Ancient Greece ; review the books of mighty Rome ; summon back the honored dead of every age ; and where, among the race of mortal men, shall one be found who has been a greater ben- — — - • - ■ — ® ’ V DISCO V Eli Y OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. 37 efactor to mankind than C ilumbus. LI is tomb, of right, belongs to this country, and we believe the time will come when his remains will be a sacred deposit in our land without their being removed. That the American Eagle will spread her life-giving wings of better life over that queen gem of all the islands, her feet resting upon a noble monument, a tribute houorable to parent and child, designed by the grateful hearts, upraised by the willing hands of American citizens a monument to a world’s bene- factor — the great, the immortal Columbus. “ Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace And saw within the moonlight in his room, Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, An angel writing in a book of gold. Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the presence in the room he said, * What writest thou P The vision raised its head And with a look made of all sweet accord, Answer’d 4 The names of those who love the Lord. And is mine there?’ said Abou. ‘ Nay, not so,’ Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low But cheerily still, and said, 4 1 pray thee, then Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.’ The a-ngel wrote and vanished. The next night It came again w ; th a great wakening light, And show’d the names whom love of God had bless’d And lo ! Ben Ad hem’s name led all the rest.” CHAPTER III. ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT. The discovery itself of the American Continent may properly be regarded as the most extraordinary event in history. In this, however, as in other events, familiarity blunts our conceptions and time dulls the sharp edge of our perceptions. Yet the more I have meditated, the more I have investiga- ted, and become familiar with the wonderful circum- stances with which it is clothed ; its magnitude in- creases with every successive contemplation. That a continent as large as Europe and Africa united, extending on both sides of the equator, lying be- tween the Western shores of Europe and Africa and the Eastern shore of Asia, with numerous in- tervening islands, stopping places on the road of discovery, should have been undiscovered for five thousand years is a mystery beyond human compre- hension. It would seem that the All-Wise Ruler of the human family must first see what the nations ol the Old World could do, towards establishing His great humanity upon earth, before the dark curtain which hid its last hope is lifted up. The old intol- erant civilization, when weighed in the eternal bal- ances of high Heaven, was found wanting. On the ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT. 39 first day of August 1620, a few care-worn English subjects exiled themselves from Delf Haven, in Holland, to encounter the then dreaded perils of the Atlantic and the still greater uncertainties of their proposed settlement on the edge of the New World. In coming to this country, our fathers contempla ted a safe retreat across the sea where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Judging from the primitive compact signed on the 11th of November, 1620, on board the Mayflower, before they landed in Provincetown har- bor, after their very precarious voyage, evidently shows a decided intention to establish a government on the basis of equality — to unite in their code re- ligion and liberty, morals and law. The Pilgrims were actuated by that principle which has given the first impulse to the great movements of the mod- ern world, “ God and Liberty .” They had the im- perfections of humanity. Those exalted principles were combined with human weakness. They were mingled with the prejudices and errors of age, coun- try and sect; sometimes intolerent, yet always rev- erent and sincere. When pressing their wishes to the government and enlisting the favor of some good men to assist them in their new undertaking, they put forth the following as their principle reason : 40 BEYOND THE WEST. “We do verily believe and trust that the Lord is with us, unto whom and whose service we have given ourselves in many trials, and that He will graciously prosper our endeavors, according to the simplicity of our hearts.” Men who can put forth such words with sincerity, and who have embarked in a just cause, are almost sure to succeed. They may not live to gather the fruits of their own planting ; others may build, but they have laid the foundation. Entertaining such views, the body was raised above weakness ; it nerved the humble to withstand the frowns of pow- er ; it triumphed over the prison and the scaffold, over all kinds of suffering and deprivation ; it gave also manly courage to tender and delicate women. Whatever may be said for or against the motives our Pilgrim fathers had in coming to the New World to found a colony, they did plant deep in the fruitful soil the living principles of republican gov eminent for the admiration of mankind. Two hun- dred and fifty years has now passed away since this faithful colony landed upon our shore. We love to go back to our infancy and follow up the settlement of the country ; to see the wilderness and the frowns of savage nature give way to homes of civilized life. The log house of the frontier settler first built on the shore of the Atlantic moved slowly but steadily, con- ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT. 41 quering hostile nature towards the setting sun, compelling the cabin of the trapper and the wig- wam of the savage to change their homes farther and still farther to the West, and then beyond the Great West, where we now find men planting towns and cities, making governments and doing all other acts and things requisite to the establishment of healthy and prosperous homes. The natives are not wholly alone in their would- be savage glory, for civilization has established it- self across and over the continent, and they must conform or be ultimately annihilated. Every obstacle must be removed that is in the way of the extension of this growing family of great and prosperous States in the West. “ Behind the squaw’s light bark canoe The Steamer and Railroad rocks and raves, And city lots are staked for sale Above old Indian graves. I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be ; The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea. The rudiments of Empire here Are plastic yet and warm, The chaos of a mighty world Is rounding into form. Who can or will presume to assign limits to our growth or dare to compute the time table of our railway progress, or lift the curtain that hides the BEYOND THE WEST. 42 crowded great events of the coming century. The noble work now established across the continent will go on. We indulge in the bright \ision of healthful progress all over our land, from the first headland our progenitors saw on the Atlantic coast to the last promontory on the Pacific, which receives the parting kiss of the setting sun. Kind reader, the only apology I have to give you for the unusual length of these articles, is their im- portance to us, also to the whole family of man. We too often forget (not that we are ungrateful) the be- ginnings of what we now are. It becomes the child- ren of noble progenitors to turn back occasionally the well-filled pages of time, pass to where they had a parentage, where the underlying principles were established from which a nation has grown by steady steps, great -and prosperous at home, and sent back to the old world the healthful influence of a better civilization, in which every soul has an interest, and can breathe freer wherever the atmosphere of heav- en has worked a pair of human lungs. “’Tis yours to judge how wide tte limits stand between a great and happy land, from ocean to ocean.” Now that freedom is established all over the land, we have no more cause of war, and peace has come to stay. We shall have prosperous continental en- ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT. 43 terprise from the cold North (as we now go there) to the sunny South — one government, one noble destiny. “ The Pilgrim spirit has not fled ; It walks in noon's bright light, And it watches the bed Of our glorious dead With the holy stars by night ! And it watches the bed Of the brave who have bled, And shall guard this widespread shore Till the waves of the bay Where the Mayflower lay Shall form and rise no more.” CHAPTER IV. WHERE IS THE WEST? The first settlers upon Massachusetts Bay, after exploring the country for twenty miles “out West,” reported the fact with great surprise, and boasted that the soil was tillable for that entire distance. This book is styled Beyond the West, for the rea- son that what is generally understood by the great productive West, seems to stop this side of the geo- graphical centre of the continent North and South. Nature has drawn the line of demarkation between them. The central rivers of the continent — the Mis- sissippi aid Missouri — form, to some extent, the boundary. The continental centre is about half way between the Missouri river and the base of the Rocky Mountains. West of this the whole country to the Pacific is so differently made up as to be quite another country, as to the natural productions and climate. Consequently, what we mean when we speak of the Old West does not belong to this other New West. This has distinctive characteris tic features peculiar to the country, quite different from the Atlantic side. “Where the West Is. — C hicago is no longer a WllEttE IS THE WEST ? ^ 45 western, but is an eastern city. It is only 900 miles to the Atlantic coast, while it i 3 2 r 350 miles to the Pacific coast. Dividing the Union into east, centre and west, the eastern division will embrace all the States lying east of the Mississippi river; the central, all the States and Territories between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains ; and the western, all the States and Territories between the Rocky Moun tains and the Pacific coast. Somewhat the largest of these three great divisions is the central. And, astonishing as it may appear to those who have not examined the map carefully, the territory lying west of the Rocky Mountains contains as many square miles as the territory east of the Mississippi river, notwithstanding this comprises eleven bouthern, all of the so-called ‘ Eastern ; and ‘ Central 1 States, and all of the old ‘Northwest/ The completion of the Pacific Railway has changed the central, and moved the west 1 200 miles toward the setting sun. The actual west consists of California, Oregon, Wash- ing on, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and the major portion of Colorado and New Mexico It is hard to realize the truth that Chicago is an eastern city, and that Illinois is not even a central, but is an eastern State. Omaha, which has always been regarded as on the western verge of the ‘ Fai West/ is in fact 150 miles east of the center of the 16 BEYOND THE WEST. • Union !” Consequently we can with propriety style this book Beyond the Old West. I hope that no American citizen will let an opportu- nity pass to make the trans-continental journey; with- out it, no one can hare an extended knowledge of his own country, of the great extent of our domain, our wonderful resources and our future destiny. Chicago is the gathering-in point of Railroads. She is the center of railway commerce, East and West, and may now be called an Eastern city, which a few years ago was very far to the West ; for the star of empire has left her far behind to the full en- joyment of home enterprise and home comforts. Whether the traveler to the West from New York goes by New York Central, Erie, or by Michigan Southern or Michigan Central, leaving at the same time, he is carried into Chicago almost at the same moment, a thousand miles journey. From Chicago to Omaha, where begins the Pacific Railroad, is five hun- dred miles, through Northern Illinois and Central Iowa by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, crossing the Mississippi River about half way. Two more roads further South will soon be finished — Rock Island and Burlington— which will give Chicago and Omaha three separate lines nearly direct. Oma- ha has also communication with the great -comraer cial city of St. Louis by the road down the Missouri River to St. Joseph and Kansas City. VV H EKE IS THE WESTS 47 It seems, however, strange that Railroads should go before civilization. Yet it is so with the Pacific, giving more ease and luxury to travelers than any other road in Europe or America, more comfortable and luxurious accommodations for railway travel than anywhere else in the world. This results from the country through which it runs. We find on no other railways as yet so elegant and ease-giving car- riages as the refreshment and sleeping cars offered travelers on this new highway of nations ; all the accommodations of a first class hotel upon wheels. They are the invention of Mr. Pullman, who will ever receive the grateful thanks of a grateful travel- ing public. He has associated his name with one of the greatest improvements in railroad travel. These cars are owned by companies and added to the trains of railroad companies by special agreement. Additional charges are required of passengers who occupy them, in proportion to the amount of room taken, but about on a par with the charges of a good hotel for meals and lodgings. To enjoy and appre- ciate these cars, a party of about twenty should charter the exclusive use of one, with which to make the continental pleasure trip to the Pacific. Start ing from the Atlantic cities in a Pullman home, the journey across the continent to San Francisco may be made with a pleasure and comfort unequaled heretofore in all the traveler’s dreams. CHAPTER V. THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE DISCOVERED. Many have been the expeditions fitted out by the old countries and this, to explore the ice-bound re- gions of the Arctic Seas. Many noble men went out with an old Roman hardihood into these unknown Northern Seas of ice and darkness, to meet the only enemy with which they felt themselves mated. Their long years of perilous and difficult adventure in these inhospitable regions stand foremost among the heroic achievements of mankind. The most no- ted expedition was that of Sir John Franklin in 1845 with 135 selected men, not one of whom ever return- ed ; but all went to explore the vast ocean from whose bourne no traveler returns. These explorations prove, beyond all doubt, that if there is a northwest passage to India, or any other place, it is very much iced up, and is a much more uncertain road to travel than Jordan. But it was reserved for the last part of this nineteenth century to discover and make the only practical highway of iron to India, or any other place in that neighbor- hood, If it were not for the ferry at the Pacific end, it would, no doubt, push itself directly there. However, as it is, humanity is brought nearer to- gether; the old East his moved toward a better reconstruction of humanity. OMAHA. CHAPTER VI. OMAHA AND NEBRASKA. Omaha, the principal city in Nebraska, rises sym- metrically from the west bank of the Missouri. You see its majesty of location and its already extended improvement at one view. It being the starting place and headquarters of the Pacific Road, has im- parted to the city a wonderful development, and it has now a population of 1 8,000* It has also the river at its command, navigable for two thousand miles in either direction, with the principal work-shops of the Railroad and the lines from the other parts of the country centering around it to make their trans- shipments. This place is destined to become one of our great interior cities. A bridge will soon be built across the river to Council Bluffs ; then the same cars can go back and forth from one end of the continent to the other. A considerable portion of Nebraska presents good inducements to the settler. For more than two hundred miles it is washed by the tributaries of the Platte and Missouri. For some two hundred miles west from the river the land is somewhat rolling, well watered and plenty of wood. This portion of the 8tate is being settled rapidly; well cul- 50 BEYOND THE WEST. tivated farms are constantly in view, and all look healthy and prosperous as a people can who are contending anew with the unsubdued rough ele- ments of nature. But the humble habitation of the emigrant is passed, and nature for the present, has limited his settlement in this direction. CHAPTER VII. THE PLAINS. ** We cros9 the prairie as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West as they the East The household of the free.” Here we must wait till the rivers and streams which gather in the melted snows in summer on this slope of the Rocky Mountains are damned and made to irrigate this otherwise unproductive soil, as to cereals, fruit and vegetables. But the native grass is strong and nutritious, and pasturage is unbound- ed ; if it were not so, the countless herds of buffalo would not have fattened and roamed these plains for unnumbered centuries. This country would laugh now to be called by the opprobrious name of “American desert. 75 But the Railroad has killed, for the present, whatever cultivation these plains had received during the time of slow moving emi- gration, stage travel and prairie schooner freighting. The ranches and stations which w r ere supported by this travel through the country are now abandoned, for the cars carry everybody and everything. They were the out-posts of civilization, but now the old roads are abandoned and the settlers have lost their improvements, being obliged for better protection I BEYOND THE WEST. 5 1 | to move back or ahead, or gather at the railroad stations. They are the victims of a higher develop- ment; the iron-tongued locomotive calls them back to j receive that prominent enterprise which she carries along with her through the country for the settler, i I noticed that one class of the original inhabitants of this region remained in their old homes without fear or favor, careless and unconcerned as if there had been no change in their land. The prairie dog villages or settlements with their traditional com- panions remained as of old. He stood erect on the threshold of his castle, his own picket and scout, enjoying the world as of old, like a gentleman ar.d philosopher. An Lonest real estate dealer, he con- [ ducts his business upon the principle that, inhabit- ants are requisite to make a city, and never defrauds jl unsuspecting victims ; always jovial, frolics merrily with his fellows in the warm sun, making, seeming- ly, his life a party of pleasure. There is a belief that the prairie dog willingly gives the owl and rattlesnake a home in his subterranean house. I was informed by an old hunter and trapper through the country, who had good opportunities of | observation, that the prairie dog consents to share his abode with these ill-assorted denizens through his inability to avoid it. Their villages are on the naked plains, where there is neither rock for i i TIIE PLAINS. 53 the rattlesnake nor shade for the winking e\esof the owl. These idle and impudent foreigners in- trude and appropriate to themselves the labors of the industrious little animal which provides himself with a cool shelter from the burning sun, and a comfortable home to shelter him from the storm. Whenever they are driven to seek refuge from sun or storm, they enter unceremoniously and take pos- session. My now friend mountain man also informed me that the rattlesnake, when other food was not con- veniently obtained, would appropriate to himself a young prairie dog, and that the owl waits at the door of its appropriated (without leave) domicil to nab a wandering mouse that might come that way, instead of going after it as an honest owl should do. How- ever, they seem friends, for I suppose the would-be lord and master of the household dare not be other- wise for fear of ready vengeance. I have seen him when domestic troubles seemed to rack his little red doggish constitution, when it was easy to imagine he looked a lecture, each sparkling eye a sermon. Around their burrows the earth is heaped up 18 or 20 inches, from the top of which the occupants de- light to survey what is going on in the community. They feed at night, are very shy, and when shot, un- less killed outright, will tumble back into their bole. 51 BEYOND TIIE WEST. Their flesh is tender, rich and juicy, which in such a country is often very desirable. They are often found many miles from any water ; some conjecture that they dig subterranean wells, others that they live without drinking ; during winter they remain torpid, shut in their subterranean house, and when they come out it is a sure indication of warmer weather. A remarkable sameness is observable in the topography and geological features of these plains, presenting a great contrast between the rich green prairies of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and a por- tion of Kansas “ Away, away, from the dwellings of men, To the wild deer’s haunt and the buffaloes glen.” No active, living town now marked the lonesome plain to beat and throb from life’s great business vein. The vision wanders over the boundless ex- panse, stretching all around to the horizon. The traveler startles at the thrilling sensation, the illim- itable freedom; his mind and body both seem to have entered another country, expanded as the boundless imagery that is spread in distance around him. After many days and weary nights of travel, in the dim outline of distance to the northwest was seen Long’s Peak, clearly defined against ominous black clouds, more than a hundred miles ahead. THE PLAINS. 55 Next is seen Pike’s Peak ; at length the whole west- ern horizon seems bounded with clearly defined mountain ranges, towering up, standing against the sky, large, massive and sublime, having the appear- ance of low clouds more than mountains. CHAPTER VIII. DENVER CITY. Denver City is pleasantly located under the shadow of the mountains, on the South Platte ; is substantially built of brick and wood ; has good hotels, banks, a United States Mint, some fine blocks of buildings, and is the business centre of a large section of country. The town is settled down and is much more sub- stantial now than when I visited it before. It has lived through its fast and fickle days, when drinking and gambling reigned supreme, when to be or not to be” was the all-absorbing question with those owning real estate and doing business. The prob- lem is now solved. Denver is a fixed fact — has all the elements in and around her to become a pros- perous, wealthy city. Her central location, contigu- ous to the mountains and the plains in this section of the State, gives her an agreeable climate the whole year — gives her the outgo and the income of all the mining districts. Denver is also the princi- pal market for all the agricultural productions of the farming counties ; also the central place for travel to and from the mountain mining regions ; also north to the Railroad and south to New Mexico. With DENVER CITY. 57 these local facilities, and with an enterprising, iutel ligent population already of about five thousand, growing from within and without, and not wholly by importations, it will soon have the Pacific Railroad on the St. Louis route, connecting her with the branch of the Central that comes down from Chey- 3nne, giving her ample railroad advantages. CHAPTER IX. THE MOUNTAIN RANGES. Here, from the door of our hotel, we contemplate in wonderful grandeur the mountain ranges, nature’s magnificent panorama, such as never feasted the hard earned glories of human effort, equaled only by the Great Artist — face to face with God’s won- derful yet beautiful handiwork. The continental mountains dwell here in magnifi- cent proportions, extend themselves in reckless luxuriance of conscious greatness, and invite the nation to her for strength, for wealth, for the most healthful recreation. They may truthfully be called the Mother Mountains of the continent. Starting from an elevation on the plains of over five hundred feet, these mountains go up eight, ten, eleven and twelvo hundred feet above the sea level. Peaks are scattered every where. This flight, indeed, they are the mountain ranges. They do not form a line, as cending from one and descending to another valley, but are many lines folded together and resting on each other in remarkable confusion, the range that divides the waters that flow to the Atlantic from those going to the Pacific. “ The divide” runt MOUNTAIN RANGES. 59 very irregular, making quarter and half circles, and then returning to its mission as a north and south line. Within its leviathan folds are other divides, making other feeders of the same river, and other ranges with peaks as high as the parent among them all, occasionally, as if weary with perpendicularity, give way to plains, with all the characteristics of plains outside the mountain ranges ; and then the added pleasure of having little mountains of their own to make more interesting the landscape, while up and around them are stationed the old grand patriarchal sires, to guard and enfold what are known as the Parks. CHAPTER X. ASCENT OF PIKE’S PEAK. As none of the Rocky Mountain Peaks have such universal notority over the country as Pike’s Peak, although not ascending it myself, I have thought proper to give A. D. Richardson’s description of his party’s ascent, for the benefit of the general reader. The distance from Colorado to the summit of Pike’s Peak as the bird flies, is five miles, by the nearest practicable route about fifteen. A Colorado gentleman who had once made the trip, became our guide, philosopher, and comrade. Early in the morning, escorted by a party of friends, we rode to the Fountain Qui Bouille, stopping for copious draughts of that, invigorating water. A mile further, the canyon became impracticable for vehicles, so that carriages turned back and we began our pedestrian journey. Like Denver and Golden City, our starting point was higher above sea-level than the summit of Mount Washington. Six athletic miners, ranch-men and carpenters who chanced to be going up that morn- ing, led the caravan. Our own party of five, in single file, brought up the rear. We were each ASCENT OF PIKE’S PEAK. (U provided with a stout cane and a drinking cup. The ladies were in bloomer costume, with broad-rimmed hats and light satchels suspended from their belts. The unhappy trio of men in thick boots and heavy woolen shirts, without coats or waistcoats, carried revolvers, knives, and hatchets, and bent under their heavy packs of provisions and blankets. My own weighed twenty-one pounds and I thought full twenty- seven hundred before the weary journey was ended. The steep narrow canyon, unmarked by any trail, abounded in smooth precipitious rocks, impassable for any quadruped less agile than a mountain goat. Along the bottom of the gorge, a brook leaped and splashed over the rock in a stream of silver. The overlooking hills were thickly studded with shrubs of oak and tali trees of pine, spruce and fir. Wild cherries, hops, and clustering purple berries grew in profusion. The valley abounds in gems of beauty, “ pocket editions of poetry in velvet and gold.” We made our noon camp at one of these, whiph would cause the heart of an artist to sing with joy. The brook, first appearing in view under a natural stone bridge above us, comes tumbling down in a cascade of snow white foam, torn into sparkling fringes by the jutting rocks, and is lost among the huge boulders at our feet. An irregular mass of 6% BEYOND THE WEST. granite rise3 upon one side more than a hundred feet, and on the other bank the singing waters are shaded by tall pines and blue-tipped firs. Between and be- yond their dark branches, a gray cone-shaped hill, bare of tree or shrub, stands in the back ground against a wonderfully blue and pellucid sky. A lively shower soon recalled us to the practical, when it was discovered that our whisky, through de- fective corking, had escaped from the bottles. It might prove a serious loss in case of great exhaustion; but after boiling our tin-cups of tea by a fire of branches we started on. The afternoon climb was still along the canyon, sinking knee deep into the gravelly hill; clutching desperately at friendly bushes to keep from falling backwards, and toiling upon hands and knees over wet, slippery rocks. At four o’clock, cold and wear} r , we encamped where our advanced party had already halted. Supper was prepared and eaten before a glorious fire of tree trunks; then the deep woods re- sounded with Laughter and song. But long before midnight we all slept, watched by the sentinel stars, which haste not, nor rest not, but shine on forever On the second morning we made hasty toilets with the brook for a mirror, and consumed our fried pork, biscuit, and cups of tea while sitting upon logs. We continued through two rugged canyons, with a 63 ASCENT OF PTKE’^ PEAK. smooth grassy valley between. Many of the moun tains are streaked with broad bare tracks, left by land slides. Vast masses of disintegrated granite are piled upon each other in dreary wastes. One huge stone chair overlooks a little kingdom of moun- tain and valley, but the Titan who sat upon it was long ago dethroned in one of nature’s terrible con- yulsions, which uprooted hills, and scattered granite boulders like pebbles. The burdens already hung like millstones about our necks. I began to comprehend the emotions of a pack mule, and to wonder whether a man to carry twenty-seven pounds of blankets up Pike’s Peak, did not belong to the long-eared species him- self. A cold rain set in, and at noon, drenched and shiv- ering, we encamped under a shelving rock. We kin- dled a fire and dined upon a rabbit which had sur- rendered unconditionally to a revolver. The only true philosophy of getting wet is to get soaked. Moist clothing brings a hesitating discomfort, but in feeling that every thread is drenched there is a des- perate satisfaction. So we went forth in the driving rain, and feasted upon ripe raspberries, which grew so abundantly that one could satisfy his appetite without moving. Then we returned to camp tbo roughly saturated, and throughout the afternoon made UEyoXD T1IE WEST. i ; : I i I I : ; 1 sorry essays at reading and whist playing. Early in the evening our robust Colorado friends, who had gone a mile beyond us, passed by on their return, having given up the trip as too severe. We gath- ered an ample supply of wood. The dead pines, often six inches in diameter and thirty feet high, were easily overturned; their brittle roots snapping like pipe stems. As the fire was our only solace, we piled on loirs until the 'ed flames leaped high and chased tiie tnieK. darkness away. Four of us huddled under the rock, while the fifth, as the least of two evils, sat grimly in the open air, wrapped in his blanket and brooding upon destiny. The rain became very violent, and the natural roof sloping unfortunately in the wrong direction, showered the water upon us in melancholy profusion. After many dismal jests about our dreary situation, one by one m\ co-tenants dropped asleep. My own latest recol- lection of that procrustean bed was at eleven o’clock, when I was wooing the drowsy god with my legs in a mud puddle, a sharp rock piercing my ribs, and a stream of water pouring down my back. At mid- night my friends arose, for the air had grown very chill, and sought our great log fire. After enjoyin' for a few minutes the comforts of its red flames, a comfort mitigated by the pelting rain, wrapping myself again in a wet blanket, and creeping as far ASCENT OF PIKE^ PEAK. 65 as possible under the rock, I soon slept soundly. At daylight when I awoke they were still out in the driving rain, sitting before the flames in glowing contemplation, like Marius amid the ruins. On the third morning we breakfasted morosely, sore and stiff in every joint. Less than half the journey was accomplished, and we had but one day's provisions remaining. One of the ladies had worn through the soles of her shoes in several places, and both were wet, chilled and exhausted, but they would not for a moment en- tertain the idea of turning back. By seven o’clock we were again climbing the slip- pery rock. The rain ceases, the breaking clouds once more turn forth their silver linings “ And genial morn appears, Like pensive beauty ? miling through her tears.” Behind, at our feet, stretches an ocean of pure white cloud, with mountain summits dotting its vast surface in islands of purple and crimson. Before us towers the stupendous peak. In the genial sunlight we begin to feel the comfort of dry clothing for the fiist time in twenty-four hours, and press cheerfully on. The hills, swept for miles and miles by vast conflagrations, are black, and bristling with the tall, dead trunks of pine and fir, like the multitude of masts in a great harbor. fifi BEYOND THE WEST. The valleys are shaded by graceful aspens, whose leaves quiver in the still air, and carpeted by luxuri- ant grass rising to our chins, and variegated with flowers of pink, white, blue and purple. Fallen tfee trunks abound, held by their broken limbs three or four feet above the ground. Climbing over them is very laborious, and tears to shreds the meager skirts of the ladies. The bloomer costume is better than full drapery. But for this trip women should don trousers. After five hours climbing slippery rocks, we dine luxuriously in a raspberry path, drinking tea from our cups and water from a spring. Thus far our journey has been only among foot- hills. Now we reach the base of the peak itself, and climb wearily up the rocky canyon which extends from base to summit. The thin air makes breathing very difficult. At five o’clock we encamped, utterly exhausted, with wild eyes and flushed faces which excited fears of fever and delirium. The ladies fell asleep the instant we stopped, and one of the mas- culines sank upon the ground. Two of us started for water down the stream bed ten yards distant, but found it dry as Sahara. So we limped dowu the gorge for half a mile, and in more than an hour reached camp again, each bearing two cups. My companion had barely strength to articulate that he ASCENT OF PIKERS PEAK. 67 would only repeat the walk to save his dearest friend from dying. I succeeded in gasping out an injunc- tion to take precious care of the costly fluid, and we lay down utterly exhausted. But the strong tea, as usual, revived us all, and we started on just as the clouds broke, revealing the mountains arid vast green prairies far behind us, a dream of beauty. Two of the party suddenly yielded to illness, accompanied by vomiting fits, and reaching the verge of vegeta- tion we encamped for the night As we rolled our- selves in blankets upon the ground beside our roaring fire, another shower drenched us, and then ' turned to hail. At nine o’clock our guide reaped the harvest of his exposure and fatigue in distress ing rheumatism, which drove him from his earth bed, and held him writhing in pain during the night, but disappeared with daylight’s return. On the fourth morning ice was lying thick about our camp. All the party wore a lean and hungry look, but our scanty larder allowed to each only a little biscuit, a bit of meat as large as a silver dollar, and an ample draught of tea. At five o’clock we left our packs behind and resumed the march. In climbing Mount Washington the vegetation grades down regularly from tall pines to stunted cedar shrubs with trunks five or six inches thick, and branches not more than three feet high, running along like grape vine^. 38 BEYOND TIIE WEST Pike’s Peak affords a sharp contrast. We started in a dense forest of pines and firs, but vegetation ceases so abruptly that in ten minutes we stood upon the open, barren mountain side, with no green thing about us except a few flowers and beds of velvety grass among the rocks. The remainder of the as cent is very abrupt. We followed the line, which in the distance had appeared like a path, but now proved a gaping gorge a mile in width. The summit seemed very near, but we toiled on and on for hours up the sharp hight. The thin air made it impossi- ble to go more than a hundred feet without pausing for breath ; but among the grand scenery we forgot our fatigue and remembered our weariness no more. The ladies, imbued with new life, could only find expression in singing the old hymn : “ This is the way I long have sought, And mourned because I found it not.” Tufts of wood indicated the haunts of mountain sheep, an animal of unequaled agility. Ue leaps incredible distances down the rocks, and is even reputed to strike upon his broad horns, which re ceive the most violent concussions without injury. The sky assumed a deeper, richer blue, and the fields of ice and snow began to enlarge. Even here hun- dreds of tulip-shaped blossoms of faint yellow, mingled with purple, opened their meek eyes beside ASCENT OF PIKE’S PEAK. (V the freshly-fallen snow! It was worth all our toil to see the cheek of June, with its purple flush, nestle among the silver locks of December. Finally the last flower and blade of grass were left behind and only rocks and snow ahead. It became difficult to avoid falling asleep during our brief pauses. Just below this we turned southward to look down a tremendous chasm known as the “ Crater.” It is half a mile wide, nearly circular, inclosed by abrupt walls of rock, and fully twelve hundred feet deep. Creeping to the verge of the dizzy hight, while our comrades clung to us with desperate clasp to save us from tumbling over, we dislodged huge rocks into the abyss. Down they leaped, bounding from ledge to ledge, striking sparks and scattering showers of fire, with great crash and roar, that came rolling up to us like peals of thunder long after they were out of sight. One overhanging rock affords to the spectator, lying flat upon his face, an excellent view of the yawning gulf, though its uncomfortable tumb- ling disquiets his nerves. At last, just before noon, passing two banks of snow which have lain unmelted for years, perhaps for centuries, we stood on the highest poiut of Pike’s Peak. The ladies of our party, one a native of Boston, the other of Derry, N. H., were the first ol their sex who ever set foot upon the summit. BEYOND THE WEST. TO Pike’s Peak was named in honor of General Zebu* Ion M. Pike, a gallant young officer, who discovered and ascended it in 1806, while at the head of an ex- ploring expedition sent by Jefferson’s administration A few years later, before he had reached the prime of life, he fell in the defence of his country’s flag, at the battle of Toronto. The summit embraces about fifty acres. It is oblong and nearly level, composed wholly of angular slabs and blocks of disintegrating granite. We found fresh snow several inches deep in the interstices, but the August sun had melted it all from the surface. We were fortunate in having a clear day, which gave us the view in its full sublimity. Eastward for a hundred miles, our eyes wandered over dim dreary prairies, spotted by dark shadows of the clouds and the deeper green of the prairies, intersected by faint gray lines of road, and emerald threads of timber along the streams, and banded on the far horizon with a girdle of gold. At our feet, below the now insignificant mountains up which we had toiled, stood Colorado, a confused city of Liliputs, and our own carriage with a man standing near it. Further south swept the green timbers of the Foun- taine Qni Bouille, the Arkansas and the Huerfano, and then rose the blue Spanish Peaks of New Mexico a hundred miles distant. Eight or ten miles away ASCENT OF PIKE’S PEAK. 71 two little gems of lakes were set among the ragged mountains holding shadows of the rocks and pines in their transparent waters. Far beyond a group of tiny lakelets — (eyes of the landscape) glittered and sparkled in their dark surroundings like a cluster of stars. Toward the north we could trace the timber of the Platte for seventy miles, almost to Denver. To the west, the South Park and other amphitheaters of rich floral beauty, gardens amid the utter desolation of the mountains, were spread thousands of feet below us, and beyond, peak upon peak, until the pure white wall of the Snowy Range rose to the infinite blue of the sky. North, south, and west swept one vast wilderness of mountains of diverse forms and mingling colors, with clouds of fleecy white, sailing aerial among their scarred and rugged summits. We look upon four territories of the Union, Kan* sas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico, and viewed regions watered by four great rivers of the continent, the Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande and Colorado; tri- butaries respectively of the Missouri, the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California. Upon the north side of the peak a colossal plowshare seems to have been driven down from the summit to the base, its gaping furrow visible seventy miles away, and deep enough in itself to burv a mountain of 72 BEYOND THE WEST. considerable pretensions. Such enormous chasms the armies of the Almighty must have left in heaven when to overcome Lucifer and his companions, “ From their foundations loosening to and fro, They plucked the seated hills with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops, Uplifting, bore them in their hands.” At the gorge’s head, some enterprising fellow had posted a railway hand-bill, which, with finger pointing directly down the gulf, asserted in glaring capitals, “shortest and best route to the east. ,, It seemed impossible to grow weary of the wonderful picture, but my companions, though wrapped in heavy blankets were shivering with the cold. So we iced and drank a bottle of champagne which a Colo- rado friend had thrust into one of the packs, and then like more ambitious tourists placed a record in the empty bottle, which was carefully re-corked and Juuried under a pile of stones. We spent a few minutes in school boy pass-time of snow balling; then, after two hours upon the summit, we reluctantly commenced the descent, for living without eating was becoming a critical experiment. Our guide, weakened by the hard journey, missed his foothold, falling upon a jagged rock. Fortunately the metalic case of his spy glass saved him from a fractured rib, and after lying upon the rocks for a few minutes he came limping down with the rest. In descending, ASCENT OF PIKE’S PEAK. 73 the rarity of the atmosphere did not retard us, but we found climbing down quite as exhausting as climbing up, and a raspberry diet is not invigorating. At five o'clock we reached the last night's camp, glad to break our twelve hours' fast with ample cups of tea and homeopathic fragments of bread and meat. After a brief halt we hastened on down the ledges and over tree-trunks. When we sat upon a log for a little rest, one of the ladies appeared utterly exhausted. We asked if we should not camp until morning that she might re- cruit? She could not articulate a single word, but shook her head with indignant vigor. Again press- ing on, an hour later we kindled a fire, went to bed, or rather to blankets, and we were instantly asleep. On the fifth morning when we awoke, only that expressive colloquialism which the fire companies have added to the vernacular could describe our condition; we were “played out." We swallowed our last provisions, a morsel of meat and a table- spoonful of crumbs each. The unfailing tea measur- ably restored us, but in our exigency we would gladly have exchanged it for the cup which cheers and does not intoxicate. We descended by a new route over hill sides, crossed and recrossed by tracts of grizzly bears, and through canyons surprising us constantly with a 74 BEYOND THE WEST. new wealth of beauty, which we were hardly in con- dition to appreciate. After journeying five or six hours, ^we experienced, not the gnawing of hunger, but that irresistible faintness which the Irishman so exactly described as “ a sense of goneness.’’ Endeav- ors to talk and think of other matters were fruitless, the “odorous ghosts of well remembered dinners” would stalk unbidden through the halls of memory, and in vain we sought to “ Cloy the hungry edge of appetite By bare imagination of a feast.” At noon we halted by the cascade which had so enchanted us on our first day's march, and slept for an hour under the shading pines. Then we should- ered our packs for the first time and hobbled on down the canyon. At four o’clock our guide, who was a few yards in advance, suddenly came upon our waiting carriage. Now that the strain was over, the nerves of the ladies instantly relaxed. One received the intelligence with a shower of tears — the other with hysteric laughter. In a moment we were surrounded by Colorado City friends, who, alarmed at our protract- ed absence, were out in several parties, armed with stimulants and provisions, searching for us amon^ the foot-hills. Two hours later we reached the town. My com ASCENT OF PIKE’S PEAK. 75 panions, with haggard cheeks and blood shot eyes, seemed but shadowy suggestions of their former selves. Each of the ladies had lost just eight pounds of flesh in less than eight days. One, whose shoes were cut through by sharp rocks early on the journey, had been walking for three days with por- tions of her bare feet striking upon the stones, gravel and snow. We were soon clothed and in our right minds, and eating heartily. No lasting inconvenience was experienced from the trip, except the moat ravenous and uncompromis- ing hunger which continued at intervals for the next two weeks. If “ he is well paid who is well satis- fied,” the journey was far the most remunerative any of us had ever taken. This Peak is surrounded by several ranges of mountains risiug gradually from the plain, with large and small valleys between, so that a carriage can only get within four or five miles of the base of the mountain proper. A party wishing to make the ascension ought to take pack horses ; then they can get over all the space from Colorado City to the main ascent with little difficulty, and the party being vigorous, can then gain the peak without excessive fatigue, and the tourist will experience no incon- venience, “ no evil will thence ensue,” but a pleasure in making it. 1 was informed by a party who had 76 BEYOND THE WEST. made the ascent, that they managed in this way: left their horses at the base of the mountain, made the ascent, remained on the summit two hours and returned to their horses the same day. These were of course experienced mountain men, and could go up and over more mountains in a single day than a party like the one described could in four or five. This was my experience when I first went to these mountains, it was all I could do to look up to some of them, and have a kind of weak-kneed, cushioned- chair, feather-bed country atmosphere faint-hearted- ness. But after a few months, getting tbe lungs ad- justed to the new atmosphere, and the additional strength of mountaineer life, brought down these before formidable mountain peaks, within the ability and strength of mortals here below. We have given the ascent of two principal moun- tains that the reader might have a full knowledge of their piled up magnificence, nature’s pyramids. J CHAPTER XI. THE ROAI) TO 80UTII PARK. You are invited to go with me to South Park, something over a hundred miles from Denver, passing over one of the most interesting roads which penetrate the mountains. The pleasant valleys, with their sleepless mean- dering crystal streams, covered with green buffalo grass, mingled with wild flowers, the easy divide, the gentle slope of the low foot-hills, pictured with small groves of trees having a very heavy foliage, together with the remarkable rock and earth forma- tions, presenting the appearance of extreme old age, arranged by the operative elements of nature, dur- ing long centuries, into beautiful architectural grandeur ; remarkable specimens of detached rock in the monument region, towers and pyramids hun- dreds of feet high, scattered thickly over hundreds of acres, in the midst of large tiees, together with the smaller pillars, statues, pagan idols, cardinals, friars, picturesque large and small cottages, Siamese twins, and a numberless variety of images, may be detected among them, differing in color and shape, presenting a scene of unusual beauty and magnifi 78 BEYOND THE WEST. cence — some located upon hills, like great temples built by human hands. One is known as Table Rock, another Castle Rock, and another as Signal Rock, from signal fires which the Indians formerly built upon it. Capital R >ck takes the form of a strong fortification, with massive walls and arched gateways, let out to the slow but strong and sure hands of time, and being taken down made an un- systematic mass of ruins. They culminate in huge walls at the south, known as the gardens of the gods. Enormous columns of red rock rise perpen dicularly for three hundred feet. Through this natural gateway we passed into a beautiful enclosure, walled up oil every side by very high mountains — truly a garden for the gods. One isolated rock has a cave eight feet by sixty, and seventy feet in hight, with walls smooth and seamless. They challenge the admiration of the beholder — impress upon him the idea of a great mountain cemetery, such as Egyptian kings never built to perpetuate ignorant ambition. Then, too, the deep canyon, with moun- tain walls on either side, and its sparkling waters. Here truly are E YOK'D THE WEST. they do, abruptly on the eastern side. The rivers Grand, White, Gieen and the Genison, the head sources of the great Colorado, dash furiously through it, often imprisoned in unapproachable canyons, then flow through wide and grassy valleys in the south. We hear of rich mines and basins of broken and ruined mountains, of great conflicts of nature, and many a strong faith in ungotten wealth I have heard expressed as to this section ; but it has yet to be explored ; it has no fixed history. No doubt it is more broken, less interesting and les9 important than the middle and eastern divisions. The explorations now being made through this almost unknown land will add largely to our knowledge of what it con- tains and how it is made up. This, by far the largest and most important industrial interest, has been referred to incidentally, only while rambling over the country, preferring to give you in one ar- ticle, in a condensed form, my impressions and knowledge obtained while here. CHAPTER XV. Colorado’s mining resources. As a mining country Colorado dates from 1858. In the summer of that year a few prospecters from Kansas and Georgia explored the country up the Arkansas river. When more than two hundred miles from the mountains they discovered in small quantities loose gold on some of the bars of the stream, increasing as they followed up the river. They explored the country around Pike’s Peak, and found in some places gold in paying quantities; going northward, along the base of the mountains, finding the precious metal in different places, as far as the mouth of Cherry Creek, where Denver now is. Here they found it in larger quantity and of fine quality. These parties, returning in the fall, gave publicity to their discoveries. Mole bills mag- nified into gold mountains. The excitement spread rapidly over the country, and the next season a large emigration of Pike’s Peakers moved in that direction. Soon other rich developments were made, the ex- citement increased, and emigration moved rapidly towards the new Eldorado of the West. From that time to the present mining has been prosecuted with 102 BEYOND THE WEST. v trying success. Like rich raining countries every where, it has been the scene of extravagant hopes, a id also the scene of extravagant disappointments. Many have realized all or more than their best hopes, while others, and far the larger number, have been wonderfully disappointed. The country, how- ever, has now lived through her most trying and precarious early existence. When wild speculation ruled supreme, everybody lived, or desired to do so, on their wits, instead of honest labor, to make their “ pile,” no matter how ruled the day. “ Wherever God erects a house of prayer The devil always holds a chapel there, And ’twill be found upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation.” The people here are very much mixed. All the States, and every important place in them are rep- resented, and all are engaged in the same absorbing subject of conversation. The seat of empire, in traveling to this country, changed its base from soul to money-getting. Gold before breakfast, at breakfast and after breakfast, together with a good show of blossom rock all day and specimens in the evening. I don’t care if I do ; I will take mine clear ; I will have sugar in mine. Mountain mining life, soon rubs off the veneering of good home influ ences, and we see of what material men are made. COLORADO S MINING RESOURCES. ll)3 There is a savage fascination in R<»cky Mountain life, in its isolation, lawlessness and danger. The law of self-preservation is strong in the moun- tains. “ Keep up your heart to-day, for to-morrow you may die,” is the motto of a true mountain man. Sundays are as good as other days — no better. “First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.” Miners and mountain men remember the Sabbath da5 r only to keep it jolly ; few even would send their cards to church, while they would not go themselves. This results from the migratory and unsettled character of the people away from the restraining and humanizing influence of home association. But she has lived through that uncer- tain era when “ to be or not to be, 5 ’ was an unsolved problem. The loose surface washings of uncertain- ty have run off with uncertain and unskilled labor, and they are coming down to the “bed rock” of stability — more permanent prosperity. Central City, located in a narrow defile in the mountains, unshapely and straggling as if built to order and accidentally dropped between the close mountains while being conveyed to its destination, is the center of mining. The most important develop- ments have been made here, rich quartz leads were earl} 7 discovered, together with some rich gulch mining, which gave the place at an early day a large 104 BEYOND THE WEST. population and prosperity, and it is now nearly as large as Denver. The first mills to crush quartz and work the ore were erected and put in operation here, and they have continued work the most of the time, giving to their owners a liberal return for their money, some largely so. This place, Empire, and Georgetown in South Clear Creek Valley, seem to be directly on the mineral quartz belt of this part of the mountains; richer and better pitying leads have been found on this range than any other place in Colorado. Nearly all the stamp mills on this range are working, and more are being erected; after waiting for more efficient processes for reduc- ing the ores, their owners have put them in opera- tion, somewhat simplified, using more economy in their working. About one hundred and thirty mills are working, producing near forty-five thousand dol- lars gold per week, at a cost for mining and milling of about two-thirds. The discovery and opening of rich silver mines near Georgetown, imparted new confidence to miners and capitalists; mills are being built, and the place promises to be the most success- ful mining locality in the country; the head center of silver mining. The ores from the leading mines average from one hundred to eight hundred per ton. Two mills are now working at Georgetown on silver ores; one works the second class ore, that which will Colorado’s mixing resources. 105 give about two hundred dollars a ton. by stamping, and then amalgamating with quicksilver, at a cost of from sixty to seventy dollars per ton. The other, smelting works, in which to treat the higher grades of ore, at a cost of something over a hundred dollars a ton. This establishment buys most of the ore it reduces from the miners; either process save from seventy to ninety per cent, of the assay value of the ore. These processes, however, are so imperfect that some of the best ore is now sent east for treatment. The Equator mine is one of the prize mines here, and sends its highest grade ores all the way to Newark, N. J , for reduction. The superior yield obtained under the superior and economical manage- ment more than pays the freight, which is forty dol- lars per ton. Georgetown now has a population of about three thousand, and the beat hotel in the country. It is one of the places that every tourist should visit; partly for its silver mines, partly because the road to it up South Clear Creek is through one of the most interesting sections of the mountains, and partly that it is the starting point for the ascension of Gray’s Peaks. The traveler can go up to the top of that mountain and back to Georgetown between breakfast and supper; and if he will not take his tour by the Snake and Blue Rivers to the Middle of 106 BEYOND THE WEST. South Park, lit* should certainly mak thP excursion from Georgetown. Central City and its neighbor hood are much less interesting to the mere pleasure traveler. That town, with four or five thousand inhabitants \ is crowded into a narrow gulch rather than a valley, torn with floods and dirty with the debris of mills and mines that spread themselves over everything. Scattered about in Boulder district, on the Snake, over on the Upper Arkansas, up among the gulches of the South Park hills, are a few more quartz mills, some in operation and others not; but the principal business of quartz mining is done in the sections I have named, in Gelpin and Clear Creek counties. Mill City, Empire, and Idaho are villages in this section, with their mines and mills, doing a little something, struggling to prove their capacity, but hardly in a single case making money; partly be- cause of the poverty of the ore, but chiefly because it is refractory, and will not yield up its possessions to any known or reasonably cheap process. Time, patience, and cheaper labor will bring good results out of many of these investments, but others will have to go to swell the great number of failures that stand confessed all over this, as all over every other mining country. The other form of mining, known as gulch mi* i»*'* Colorado’s mining resources. 107 or dirt washing, is increasing again, and has em- ployed full three hundred men this season. Fifty to seventy five of these are at work in Clear Creek and Boulder valleys; but the great body of them are scattered through Park, Lake, and Summit counties, on the Snake and other tributaries of the Blue River, on the Uj»per Platte in South Park, and on the Up- per Arkansas and its side valleys. They have averaged twelve dollars a day to a man; but the season for this kind of mining is less than half the year, in some places, because of ice and snow; in most for lack of water. The business is now re- sumed in a more systematic, intelligent, and econo- mical way; labor is cheaper, miners are satisfied with more moderate returns, and there is hardly any limit to these valleys and banks under the hills and along the rivers, whose sides and gravel hold specks of gold in sufficient quantity to pay for washing over; but I pray it may never be done while I live to come to these mountains and parks, for gold washing leaves a terrible waste behind. Iu the granite district of the Upper Arkansas, quartz gold is found in simple combination, “ free” as in California, which can be mined and reduced for eight to ten dollars a ton, while it yields from fifty to one hundred dollars; but these are ores from near the surface, and it is yet a problem whether they fOS BEYOND THE WEST. will not change on going down in the veins, as in other Colorado mines, and become refractory and impossible of working at a profit, by any known pro- cess. There is apparently no limit, in fact, to the growth of the mineral wealth of Colorado, for the business is now taken hold of in the right way, pur- sued for the most part on strictly business principles, and every year must show improvements in the ways and means of mining and treating the ores. The mountains are just full of ores, holding fifteen to fifty dollars worth of the metals per ton, and the only question as to the amount to be got out, is one of labor and cost, as compared with the profits of other pursuits. Colorado has not been as great a placer mining country as California. Here quartz mills must do the work; here quartz mines are more extensive and richer than those of California, less free gold. The great mountain deposits are almost unattached; whereas, in California free gold is found very extensively. Doubtless, all the detached gold tound is derived from the disintegration of quartz leads. The mines of Colorado are very extensive and rich. What is needed most is some cheaper process by which to save the gold, and cheaper labor; together with properly organized companies, honestly and judiciously managed, will recei ve ample return for the capital invested. COLORADO S MINING RESOURCES. 109 Hiring the several years. >i (J loivido’s mining life, she has taken from her mines and shipped east, an- nually, not less than two millions of gold in any one year, and from that up to eight and ten millions in some years. With such results, under such circum- stances, who will presume to estimate the future wealth that is to flow from this country. The fact that quartz-crushing machinery processes are inadequate for the reduction of the rich ores which are here deposited, and that capital is re- quired to go down in the mines and bring up the hidden treasures of the eternal hills, is now thoroughly established. The time is now at hand, since the completion of the railway, when these hills and mountain valleys will amply reward labor and capital, by yielding the cheerful gift of valuable shining bars. These mountains were found to be too valuable to be longer left for the exclusive occupation of the red man. He must give place to a more useful life — to working intelligent labor. The fullness of time had come with them. The desirable, useful treasures of this region were not to be forever useless, their mysterious deposits forever unlocked. But Greece must destroy Troy, and Rome Carthage, and the powerful nations of the north, Rome, and they too must perish, or be absorbed in their turn; if they • ) BEYOND THE WEST. suffer themselves to be left behind on toe upward and onward march of a higher and more noble civil- ization which was soon to dawn upon this world. CHAPTER XVI. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF COLORADO. On my first visit to this country in 18G5, after ex- tensive traveling over it, I came to the conclusion that this country was not by nature agricultural, and could not be made so, by the well applied labor of the husbandman. Then Denver stood naked on the plain, not even a lonely tree to shade it from the sun, neither a home garden, and the whole surround- ing country one great barren waste, except for pas- turage. But the almost wonderful change that had been made between my first and second visits, only a few short years, compelled me to quite change my first impressions. Extensive water ditches had been made from the mountains to the city, affording the best of water for the use of the place, and also for irrigating a large section of land between the city and the mountains, before almost worthless; but now there are large fields of grain ripening to the harvest, together with all the varieties of vegetables, defying in their large growth the before frowns of unre- claimed nature. Now shade trees (so necessary to comfort here,) are growing in their strength and beauty, and gardens and dooryards made green with 112 BEYOND THE WEST. grass, and gardens filled with useful and necessary vegetables. As agriculture is the under stratum upon which all other interests rest — the “ philoso- pher’s stone,” to which all must come for their very existence — I viewed this land’s resurrection with un- usual interest and pleasure. Colorado is so located as to form a substantial cen- ter in the grand constitutional formation of States ; she contains to a large extent the stiffening of the continent. Located as she is in the center of the vast region, bounded by the Mississippi Valley on the east, the Pacific Ocean on the west, British | America on the north, and Mexico on the south, the continental mountain ranges stand up here in their majestic proportions ; spreading themselves round with a conscious greatness and a wantonness of power. Colorado’s gold, silver, lead, zinc, iron and copper, are bid away under theii huge shadows. They send forth fountains of the purest water, that forces itself in many directions through the interior of the continent, capable of supplying a wealth of agriculture in the valley and on the plain hardly to be anticipated. On the bottom lands, along the streams, grain and vegetables may be successfully grown without irri* gation, of which the streams offer good facilities for successful, remunerative farming, while the higher AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF COLORADO. 113 Atnds must be supplied with water during th< ir summer growth, to insure a crop. Occasionally a good crop of grain, wheat, barley and oats can be harvested along the foot hills without irrigation; th s only when the season is termed wet, and is uncer- tain. The bottom lauds are a rich alluvial deposit, brought down from the mountains, and when properly cultivated will give an astonishing vegetable growth of the grains, except corn (the hot nights that corn loves are not felt here,) and succulent plants, in quantity and quality somewhat unusual for large growth and excellent quality. The higher lands or plains are composed of a coarse sandy loam, rich in phosphates, washed down from the mountains, and are but little used as yet, except for pasture. The agriculture along the base of the mountains north, between the Pacific Railroad at Cheyenne arid Denver, is the development almost wholly of about two years, and is now nearly one half that of the whole State. South, in the Arkansas and Rio Grande valley, the farming and the population are older, going back to before the gold discoveries. This is the Mexican section, and was formerly a part of New Mexico. Its agriculture is quite extensive, but con ducted indifferently and on a rough scale, and it is only the remarkable fertility of the soil that permits BEYOND THE WEST, 114 it to be profitable, for the people are indolent, igno- rant and degraded Mexicans. The simple and eco- nomical habits of these people, together with the productiveness of the soil, make them quite rich. Some of the large farmers are wealthy. Corn grows here, as the nights are warmer. I was told there had been raised here over 300 bushels to the acre. Colorado offers good inducements to the emigrant farmer. The Cache-a-la Paudre is the most northern valley of Colorado, and finds a market at Cheyenne; it has 200,000 acres of tillable lands, of which but comparatively little is yet in use; and its lands cau be made very productive; is near a good market; holds out large inducements for farming enterprise; well applied labor is most sure to be rewarded here, perhaps not more so than in many other places. As a grazing, stock-raising country, Colorado pre- sents unlimited advantages. Grasses are abundant on the mountain sides, in the valleys, all along and over the low ranges as they shade off down to the plains; the animals can roam at will, and a single man can tend a large herd. Nature does the haying, cures the grass standing in July and August, and animals not only live but fatten upon the dried grass in the low valleys during the winter months. Most of the plains are not properly a worthless des- ert, but are nature’® great continental pasture ground. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF COLORADO. 115 National and individual wealth will yet be found iu the grazing capabilities of these plains, spread out as they are, from five to six hundred miles across, and about fifteen hundred miles in length, from Montana to Mexico. The time is now not far distant when the shepherd will be tending his flocks on the plains, and herds of cattle will take the place of nature’s men, and the herds of buffalo which are their support. They will have no further occasion to extend their arms, in praise and gratitude, to the Great Spirit in the sun, for the freedom of their ex istance on this big clearing . The Indians are now the only hindrance to the easy and profitable farm- ing business here. When the country can be made safe, as against their depredations, the energetic capitalist will find here a large field for his cattle and sheep, not literally upon a “ thousand hills.” but scattered over the extended and extensive plains; not only a source of wealth to him, but also to Colorado and the country at large. Though the red man has rights, which the white man’s government is bound to respect, yet to allow him longer to hold possession of this otherwise profitable region vyould be a great sacrifice even for a Christian to make. CHAPTER XVII. THE CLIMATE OF COLORADO. Life is fresher to all after being lifted up here from five thousand to twelve thousand feet above sea level. I would say to Americans, come here and make a more familiar acquaintance with America, among the central ranges of the continental moun- tains, the mountains in perfection and the mountains in ruin; in notorious great liberal parks with their wonderful and varied, bold, attractive beauty; in the wedded majestic rolling hills with majestic plain, under pure and unclothed skies, and in this invigo- rating atmosphere lies the pleasure ground and health giving home of the nation. The imposing influence on mind and body has no equal elsewhere. An atmosphere so pure that the eye seems to take in all space, and so dry and exhilarating that life dances at every pore. You go about as on easy wings, light-hearted, having partaken freely at the foun- tain. of pure health, spread over these hills and plains by a liberal hand. Fresh meat cut in strips in summer, and whole quarters in winter, and hung up, will cure without salting, so that it may be taken to any part of the globe without injury. I saw some \ • THE CLIMATE OF COLORADO. 117 persons, supposed to be hopelessly consumptive, able only to travel in wagons, lying upon feather beds* who, after crossing the plains and living in the moun- tains a while, recovered, so that they enjoyed a com- fortable degree of health for years after. High regions and invigorating air, away from salt water, seems to be precisely what is needed. The climate varies with the altitude, and is salu- brious and invigorating at any hight; if it were not so, the gold hunter would have been more sadly disappointed, considering the labor and exposure to which he was subjected. The settler here seldom suffers in acclimation, he will generally become . rejuvenated — endowed with a new stock of constitu- tional vigor. Lung diseases, which in low country climates are so common and often so fatal, are almost surely cured in this high and arid atmosphere. I was told that in some sections, it was so healthy that a man had to be killed to start a burying-ground. These mountain ranges send forth great fountains of health in exhilarating air, in nature’s great fountains of wonderful beauty. They may indeed hold out inducements for all to come to them for wealth, for invigorating health, for relief and restoration. They may with propriety be called the Mother Mountains. The climate of that portion lying east of the moun- tains is delightful and healthy. The frosts come * f l 1 8 BEYOND THE WEST. early in the autumn and continue far into spring, but they are not severe. On the plains the snows are never sufficient to prevent cattle from thriving and fattening on the nutritious grass, dried up and cured, standing for fall and winter use. CHAPTER XVIII. NEW MEXICO GENERALLY. This territory, containing about 122,000 square miles, three times larger than New England, was a part of Old Mexico previous to 1846; hence its name. At the close of the Mexican war, it came legally 7, into the possession of our government. In 1848, at the settlement of the war, the Mexican title to the land was extinguished, and it came fully into the possession of the United States. Since then settle- ments have been quite large as to agriculture, stock- raising and mining. These interests are now grow- ing large, but being so far inland, away from all the markets with the outer world, are restricted wholly to home demand, as it would not pay them to team their * surplus eight hundred to a thousand miles away tc a market; but when the Southern Pacific Railway shall be completed across this country, opening out to the farming interest a ready and profitable market, then it will present unusual advantages for settlement. The great Overland Stage Route, established by John Butterfield and others, across the continent, ran through this entire territory and fixed a line of 120 BEYOND THE WEST. civilization, which has branched off to some extent through the country, and kept in various ways to- wards settlement. The seed thus planted is growing up into the harvest. The general surface of the country is uneven, badly b oken. The stupendous Rocky Mountain rangq^ tower up in all their continental magnificence, cross the territory from north to south, together with intersecting cross ranges, making some very interesting parks; the most noted of which is the San Louis, in the north part, rich in varied beauty and resources, and many remarkable features not characteristic of the other great parks further north. The mountain ranges make also many large and fer- tile valleys. The most important of these is the Rio Grande, which is the principal stream of the ter- ritory, and is navigable in places for a distance of 1,800 miles; starting in a deep canyon, plowed out of the granite rock on the side of “ Mount Lincoln,” in the eternal snows of the central range, and cross- ing the whole territory of New Mexico, from north to south. You will recollect that it was along this river that the Mexican war commenced with the United States, by conflicts between the Mexican army, under the command of General Ampudia and the army under General Taylor. new mp:xico generally. 121 This valley is from one to fifteen miles wide, is capable of supporting a population large enough for a small State. The bottom lands are remarkably productive; also the low sloping foot-hills, with a light gravelly soil, when irrigated and properly till- ed, give a growth of almost any crop put upon them, that will fill a mountain valley home with enough and to spare, with comparatively little labor, for both the soil and climate unite in a remarkable degree to assist those who turn its rich furrows to the sun, and put in the seed. As the season for vegetation is very long, often two crops are grown in one year from the same land. Vegetation through all this country makes a much more rapid growth than it does in the more northern States. As there is but • little rain here during the year, scarcely no winter in the low valleys, and the almost constant sunshine, with a proper system of judicious irrigation, these valleys will produce, and can be depended upon like a hot-bed. But eleven years ago, this large territory was ac- quired by the United States. At that time the Ranchers cultivated the land on original principles, such as, I suppose, was used when “Adam delved with a hoe, remarkable only for its antedeluvian ex- istence ; a wooden plow made of a forked tree, such as was used on the plains of Syria, and in Persia, 122 BEYOND THE WEST. such as may now be seen in the Agricultural Hall at Albany, together with a wooden tooth drag, com- pleted the implements of the most wealthy farmers. His farming tools showed no improvement upon those of his Aztec forefathers. Instead of our threshing machines, some of them were treading out their wheat with horses and oxen, as did the Israelites three thousand years ago; others were pounding it out with long clumsy poles upon the ground. At that time the country was occupied wholly by the low greaser Mexicans, who were jammed so full of the law of gravitation they could never get above the ground, a composition of negro and Mexican, and a few quarter civilized Indians more, that were •as wild and ugly as some of their hunting grounds. New Mexican settlements have a remarkably old look. The adobe buildings, with small narrow win- dows, low doors and Oat roofs, suggest “ The events Of old and wonderous times, Which dim tradition interruptedly teaches.” About a hundred miles south-east of Santa Fe are saline lakes, or salt marshes, supplying the whole territory with salt; near them are found the ruins of a city, the remains of an aqueduct several miles long, walls of churches, Castilian coats of arms, pro- bably a silver mining town destroyed two centuries NEW MEXICO GENERALLY. 123 ago, when the natives drove out or killed all the in- habitants. In the south-west corner, on the San Juan River, Colorado (then in Mexico) is found some remarkable ruins. One of these deserted human bee-hives was five hundred feet long, enclosed with a wall a foot thick, and thirty feet high, of solid stone, and six stories high. Nearly three hundred years ago, Spanish Mission- aries found in New Mexico Indians who raised cotton, manufactured cloth, and lived in towns with streets, having dwellings like the present Pueblos Indians. The founders of these towns were of that remarkable order, whose unflagging energy and per- fect organization achieved such conquests over all that country. Remains of old Jesuit Missions are scattered through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Old Mexico, and Cential America. This vast region of country was converted to the old Roman faith, by life-long labor of this society, and not by the over-enthusiasm of Cortez and his robbers, who hurled the native idols to the ground, to replace them with the cross. The Santa Fe Cathedral is a high adobe edifice with effigies of the Saviour and the Virgin, with life-size paintings of these scenes hanging on the walls. In Taos there is a building of Indian origin, which 124 BEYOND THE WEST. tradition says was built three centuries ago. The streets, like those of Santa Fe and other places, are crooked and narrow, and like most towns of th'e kind, are usually filled with “ Mexican’’ car- riages. The donkey, about as large as a yearling colt, serves for mule, horse, ox, cart and barouche. He staggers like a runaway hay stack, under im- mense loads of grass and corn-stalks. He brings from the mountains immense piles of wood for fuel. He transports baggage and provisions of all kinds, generally over the mountains and plains of the whole country; indeed he is the commercial thoroughfare every where. One man will pack a number of them, called a packing train, and transport, often heavy articles, hundreds of miles; but very few wheeled vehicles in the country, those few are owned by' Americans. The Mexican has, from the first, carted all his crops from the field to his cabin on the backs of these little animals; few of them in their own country ever had a harness upon them. These small animals will take a load nearly as heavy as themselves over long mountain ranges, following each other, in Indian file, through the narrow trail, over most dif- ficult and dangerous places, apparently with little fatigue. Their endurance is quite remarkable. The interior country is so destitute of wagon roads, that there is no other way by whicn trade can be carried on between the settlements. NEW MEXICO GENERALLY. 125 Here, at Taos, the celebrated mountaineer and guide settled to crown a youth of labor, with an age ol ease, at the age of fifty. His wife, an intelligent Spanish woman, with a family about him, he retired like many other great men, on his farm, pleasantly located on Taos River, a crystal mountain stream, where his numerous horses, mules and cattle would serve him thankfully for giving them so good a home. He is a Kentuckian by birth, of most excellent na- tural abilities, but of very limited education; read- ing with difficulty, and writing very little beyond his own name. However, he speaks several lan- guages fluently; English, French, Spanish and several Indian tongues, acquired orally. His long life of many years, away from civilization, as hunter, trapper, and guide, had not deprived him of the natural in- stincts of a gentleman; honorable and simple-hearted, beloved by Americans, Mexicans and Indians. When he guided General Fremont, on his long and peril- ous expeditions, he held a lieutenant’s commission in our army. He was made a Brigadier General of Volunteers during the rebellion, and after the war took command of a fort in New Mexico. But our people having gone there of late for the purpose of settlement, to become agriculturists, miners and traders, have introduced among these benighted people the implements of a better civilization, a higher standard of farm life. 120 BEYOND THE WEST. The middle and southern portion of the territory contain large quantities of exceedingly rich land, adapted to the cultivation of cotton, sugar, tobacco, corn, sweet potatoes, peaches, fruit and vegetables, The soil and climate is such as to grow in perfection all that can be grown in the middle States; together with many of the tropical fruits. The north and the southseemto meet each other here in friendly em- brace, neither of them appear to be strayed or stolen from their native homes. As soon as the country can be made safe to the settler and his property, as against the wandering tribes of Indians, few places offer more inducements for the emigrant than this, as to fertility of the soil and climate. Here he may select almost any of the / different branches of farming, and if he does his part (not very well) he is sure to succeed beyond his first expectations. The red men here, who have a light sprinkling of higher life, live in communities, and cultivate the soil, raise remarkably good crops for their very limited knowledge, and equally limited means to do it with, or rather their squaws do it for them. These original inhabitants have been very hostile to settlers and miners, making life and property urn safe; driving from the country both Americans and Mexicans. But since it changed owners, military NEW MEXICO GENERALLY. 12T posts have been established indifferents parts of the territory, restraining the red men, and giving better security to those who are there, and teaching the savages by some hard experiences, that they must conform to the new dispensation, or go to the hunt- ing grounds of their mysterious medicine. The prin- ^ * ^al damage they now do, is to run off stock, which can hardly be guarded sufficiently to prevent such thefts; however, there is but very little of it now, as compared with a few years ago, and soon, no doubt life and property will be safe in any part of the territory. The mining interests of New Mexico can hardly be overestimated. Various parts of the country have been prospected for the precious metals with good results. Rich placer diggings have been found in many places along the rivers and mountain streams, as yet imperfectly worked. ' Near the Placer Mountains the whole soil seems to be mixed with the precious metal, and it is be- lieved by some, who have carefully examined* this district, that if science and capital was brought to its development, it would be one of the richest gold producing regions in the world. Gold in quartz veins has been found in some of all the mountain ranges of the territory, in quantity and richness that will give largfc returns when pro- 128 BEYOND THE WEST. perly worked. Some of the mines have been in- differently worked at times for over two hundred years by the Spaniards and Mexicans. The Santa Rita Mines are known to have been worked centu- ries ago. The precious metals, gold; silver, copper, iron and zinc, are known to be veiy liberally distri- buted in large quantities over the country. Wher- ever they have been developed to any extent they have given evidence of richness and permanence, and the farther they have been sunken upon the more profitable they have been. In the mountains surrounding the old trading town of Santa Fe, where the miners were somewhat protected from the Indians, they have taken out large quantities of silver. There can be no doubt but that New Mexico will become one of the very best mining sections of this country. The climate favors work remarkably. The whole year is much more favorable to these interests here than farther north. The old people of Mexican towns look older than in any other country. There is a local proverb that this region is so healthy that the oldest inhab- itants never die; but lean, attenuated and wrinkled, like Egyptian mummies, dry up ultimately and are blown away. The climate vanes with the altitude, and is very NEW MEXICO GENERALLY. 129 hea’thful at any bight. Santa Fe, the capital and business metropolis, is situated on a plain, or rather in a great mountain bowl roof above the level of the sea, and has a delightful summer climate, and is the highest town in the United States of any importance, while the mountains near, whose peaks are always covered with snow, rise to a bight of 1,200 feet. In the middle and southern portions of the territory the whole year is agreeable; the change of seasons are not any more than is agreeable and congenial to health and comfort. The sky is generally clear and the atmosphere drv. Pulmonary complaints are not known. The diseases are few ; none but those oc- casionally contracted by lying too much out on the open ground in winter. Stock-raising here, as in Northern Texas, is the most profitable source of income, the whole country being adapted to this branch of husbandry. Very large flocks of sheep are raised, and also large num- bers of mules, to suppl} 7 the demand North for them. Large portions of the high plains, low hills and val leys are covered with nutritious grasses, sufficient for the p .sturage of millions of animals the whole year, as they require no more care in winter than in summer. CHAPTER XIX. THE BUFFALOES. i The buffaloes have been driven from the more central portions of the country north down here on the plains and in the valleys, where they have now congregated, as a last resort, more largely than in any other part of the country. Here they are at home; Nature’s munificence supplies all their wants. Here life to them is a round of pleasure, as of old, while they grow large and fat for their butchers. They have here an immense country lying between the Rio Grande and Texas, and traversed by large mountains, intersected by cross ranges, little in- habited, affording them better protection than any other place. Here they had their early buffalo- hood. The first authentic account we have of them is from this part of the country. Distant as it is from the sea, the adventurous Spaniards penetrated it at an early day. Coronado speaks of having traversed the country north of the Gila, occupied by the Puebla Indians, and pushed his way eastward beyond the Rio Grande to the country of the buffalo, and he is the first who speaks of that animal, which he calls “ a THE BUFFALOES. 131 new kind of ox,” wild and fierce, with which they supplied themselves with meat, and killed four score the first day. Here the destructive slaughter began, which has been followed up, age after age, till now they are congregated in a few somewhat out of the way places to await their sure destruction. Occasionally, when passing over a mountain range, we would come unexpectedly upon a herd of these noble animals feeding in the valley, generally along a meandering mountain stream, where buffalo life seemed replete with happiness; some grazing, some lying down and sleeping, others having their buffalo plays, and still others rambling among the low, grassy fool-hills — altogether forming a landscape, when once seen, never to be forgotten. Here, alone in their glory, free from danger, (probably in their own estimation,) wime a party of men are on the ridge, stripping themselves and their horses of all un- necessary appendages which might hinder their run- ning; hats and coats are taken off, ammunition pouches laid down, prepared cartridges placed in a ready pock- et, and guns loaded, the party mount their restless steeds and they start for the onset. The horses, accustomed to the business, appear to enter into the enthusiasm with as much spirit as the riders themselves, champing their bits, ears erect, eyes dancing in their heads, and fixed on the game in the 132 BEYOND THE WEST. valley. When all are ready, the party move carefully and slowly down a long ravine to within a short dis- tance of the unsuspecting herd before being dis- covered. This brought the party near their game, and the start was close. All seemed to fly over the extended bottom land in a cloud of dust, which was raised by their many hoofs. The party dashed along through the thundering, concentrated mass, as they swept away from their view. I stretched my eyes in the direction where they had so suddenly disappeared, and nothing could be seen but the cloud of dust they had left behind them. The party did not follow the herd over a mile when they had killed a half dozen fat young cows, shot through the heart at full speed. This was all they could pack to the miner’s camp, and was more than a supply for the time. They are seldom killed now faster than the meat is needed for present use, either by white men or Indians. Their scarcity and great utility in this country is beginning to be appreciated. “ But, Monsieur Labordett, you promised to tell me about the buffalo hunt at ‘ Missouri Lake.’” “ That isn’t much to tell. It war putty much like other buffalo hunts. Thar war a lot of us trap- pers happened to be at Xez Perce and Flathead village in the fall, when they war going to kill win- ter meat, and as thur hunt lay in the direction we THE BUFFALOES. 133 war going, we joined in. The oldNez Perce chief, Kow-e-so-te, had command of the village, and we trappers had to