In Former Days, Emigrants
Traversing These Great Prairies To Found A Home In This Wild West, Were
Often Harassed By Indians, And The Soldiers At The Fort Had To Protect
Them.
Buffalo Bill has been in many a skirmish, and, if rumour is true,
many redskins have succumbed to him;
The Government took counsel with
him in all Indian difficulties in that part of the country, and the day
before I passed his ranch he had been sent for by the authorities that
they might confer with him as to the outbreak which then existed, and
which cost "Sitting Bull" his life. We passed a house cut clean in two
by the wind, great herds of horses and cattle, beautiful specimens of
the bald and other eagles and vultures, some deer, and a very fine grey
wolf about the size of a Newfoundland dog. The distant mountain
scenery at times is very grand, and everywhere snow-capped. The air is
very pure and keen. I much enjoyed the society of two fellow travellers
over this part of my journey, Mr. Lee, of General Lee's family, of
Virginia, and Mr. Hurley, Solicitor to the Directors of the line we were
traversing. We passed the "Divide of the Continent" at an altitude of
7,100 feet, which is the dividing line of the running of water; that
running east empties into the North Platte River, thence into the
Missouri, thence into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean; that
running west empties into the Green River, thence into the Colorado,
thence into the Pacific Ocean.
In the early morning of December 5th we ran into Ogden, which is near
Salt Lake, at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, which are snow-capped,
and have some very fine peaks. Salt Lake is 126 by 45 miles, and on it
is situate the great City of the Mormons. On the more fertile parts of
the prairies I gathered, at Humboldt Wells, some of the sage grass which
used to be the food of the buffaloes when they existed; at other places
I gathered samples of herbage on less favoured soils. As we proceed, we
see an encampment of Indians with red paint on their faces, which was
put on to show sympathy with, and, if necessary, take part with other
tribes of Indians, then commencing a "war" with the United States
soldiers. This district was not far, as distances go in America from the
scene of action. Presently we commence our run through the great barren
alkali plains, emerging from which we get into a more fertile country,
and, at Cedar Pass, notice the great ranch of Messrs. Sparks and Tinnin,
who are reputed to have 100,000 head of cattle. Mr. Byrne, of Elko,
Nevada, also the owner of a large ranch, was on board the cars, and gave
me some useful information. He said that cattle raising is very
profitable, as they double in number every four years, i.e., a profit
of 25 per cent.; thus, if a man start with a 1,000 head of stock cattle,
he will have 4,000 head in four years.
If a thousand head of stock cattle were purchased off a ranch, they
would be sold just as they run, without any selection whatever - steers,
heifers, cows, calves, bulls, yearlings, both sexes and all ages, but
calves which still suck their mothers are not counted, and go for
nothing. Many head of cattle perish in the winter, when the land is
covered with snow, as on many large ranches no food is given them. I
urged that it would pay to have stock-yards and give food during the
snow time, and Mr. Byrne said that he always did so himself, and that
the great ranch men were having their eyes opened to this necessity.
We passed various other encampments of Indians, and far from any
encampment or habitation saw an Indian on the track carrying a small
light bundle, and following him a long way behind was his squaw,
labouring under a very heavy burden.
During this day we ran through ranges of uneven mountains, rising one
above another in broken undulations and with ever-varying tops, such as
table lands, sharp conical peaks, rounded heads, and broken
indentations.
The distant mountains are enveloped in snow, upon which gleams a
resplendent setting sun, presenting a prospect which only such a region
could produce. From the dazzling whiteness of one range we look upon the
dense darkness of another, as being out of the sun's influence. The
lights and shades, the gorges, the fissures, the striations in the range
upon range, with their intervals of plains and valleys, here and there
opening up peeps of great tracts of country, and then again shutting
all in to the circumference of their gigantic heads, interspersed with
the brilliance of rich gold, tingeing some tops and revealing dark
recesses, some ruby tints and fantastic shadows, - all combine to reflect
a glory which lifts the mind beyond the great heights of hills to a
height, greater still, whence originated all natural grandeur.
We had run through Utah and Nevada, and were now approaching the
northern part of California. In the very early morning of December 6th I
awoke and found that the train was at a standstill. Thinking that we
were at a station I tried to sleep again, but, finding that we continued
motionless, I went out on to the platform connecting our car with the
next and found all around was deep snow, and that another train on the
other metals had broken down, and that our men were apparently helping
to get it off. We were then two miles from Truckee, and at an elevation
of nearly 6,000 feet. After a long delay we got away and ran into
Truckee. The scenery on this day was also of a truly grand character:
precipices, declivities, chasms; and in one very romantic spot, of weird
and wild mountain sides, graduating to narrow gullies, with pine and
other trees, some perfect, others broken by the wind was one great
wreck of a forest monster - a tree rudely snapped asunder by wind or
lightning, about 40 feet from the ground, and stripped of every branch,
so that it looked like a broken column; on its top sat a great vulture
in the well-known attitude of its kind, as motionless as rock, and
apparently meditating on the incongruity of a noisy, vulgar bit of
machinery, with its train of cars, invading such a nook of Nature's
solitudes.
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