The Summit Of The Sierras, Which Is
196 Miles From San Francisco, Is 7,017 Feet Above The Sea.
We remained
all night at Reno.
While there we saw in the morning a locomotive
engine, with cylinders 22 x 30 and eight driving wheels coupled, said
by the driver to weigh 165,000 lbs., start for the ascent of the
mountain, up grades of 116 feet to the mile, with 22 cars and a van.
"The country round Reno is table land with high mountains around it.
The only crop grown is 'alfalfa,' a species of clover. Three crops a
year are taken off the land, and it fetches, as fodder, from $8.00 to
$16.00 per ton, according to the season.
"At Wadsworth we saw a very nice reading-room and library for the
employes of the railway. This is quite a model station, kept green and
bright with lawns and flowers. It is a division terminus, and has a
machine shop, round house, &c. The country from Reno to Salt Lake is
dry, and almost a desert, sandy, and with sage bush in tufts; the
journey through it was hot and terribly dusty. The view of Brigham and
other villages, with farms at the foot of the hills on approaching
Ogden, was a great relief after the monotony of the last day's run.
"At Ogden we were transferred from the Central Pacific to the Union
Pacific train, and upon leaving there passed, after a few miles,
through Weber Canon, and afterwards Echo Canon; the scenery was very
picturesque, and, at this season of the year, was rendered more so by
the beautiful autumn tints which were afforded by the foliage of the
bushes which grow up the mountain sides for more than half their
height. At Evanston we left the mountains and got on the high table
land, over which we ran all day, having it cool and pleasant, a great
contrast to the heat of the previous day. During the night of the 1st
October we had it quite cold, our altitude being at no time less than
6,000 feet above the sea.
"On the morning of the 2nd October we reached Laramie, where we saw the
works of the Union Pacific Railway Company for Burnettizing their ties.
The ties are placed on trucks, run into a cylinder, steamed, treated
with a solution of chloride of zinc, with glue mixed with it, and
afterwards with a solution of tannic acid. When dried they retain only
about 1 1/4 lb. of the material with which they have been treated. Mr.
Octave Chanute, of Kansas City, Missouri, United States, erected the
works for the Union Pacific Company, and has an interest in the patents
under which the process is carried out, which is a modification of Sir
William Burnett's process. At 8.55 we crossed the highest point on the
Rocky Mountains, 8,235 feet above the sea, on table land, no peaks
being more than a few hundred feet above us.
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