26

CROFUTT’S NEW OVERLAND TOURIST

 

spike” was driven, which united the East
and the West by iron bands, and over
where the “ten miles of track was laid
in one day;?’ we shall run along beside
Salt Lake,—the great dead sea,—down
the Humboldt, and over the Eureka
& Palisade railroad to the Eureka and
White Pine country.

The “Palisades of the Humboldt,” as well
as the Lake and the great “sink” of the
Humboldt, will be visited, as also the great
Nevada Desert, and the hot, spurting sul-
phur springs of Nevada. Weshall visit the
greatest silver mining country in the
world, Virginia City, Gold Hill and Car-
son, via the Virginia & Truckee rail-
road; will take a trip over Lake Tahoe,
and fish in Donner; ascend the Sierras,
and roll through more than fifty miles of
snow sheds and tunnels, one continuing
for 28 miles. Then around “Cape Horn,”
and to the old mining towns of Grass Val-
ley and Nevada, over the Nevada County
Narrow Gauge railroad, one of the finest
in the world. We will-take a run all over
California, visit the “Big Trees,” Yo-Se-
mite Valley the “Geysers,” ‘“ Redwood
Forests,’ “Seal Rocks,’ “Quicksilver
Mines,” “Alabaster Cave,” Calestoga, and
the grape vineyards and wine cellers of So-
noma and Napa counties. We will visit
Mount Shasta and the Upper Sacramento
Valley; Coloma, where gold was first dis-
covered; Mt. Diablo, the lofty peak of the
Contra-Costa Mountains; and Mt. Tamal-

pais, the huge sentinel of the Coast Range, '

where we are at SunsET, at the Golden
Gate. After taking a hasty glance of Ore.
gon and the Columbia River, we shall direct
our course south and eastward, towards
Sunrise, up the great San Joaquin Val-
ley, over the “Loop” of the “Tehachapie
Pass,” and out on to the great “ Mojave
Desert,’ rolling down the infamous So-
ledad Canyon,—the “Robber’s Roost,”’—
and through the San Fernando Mountains,
out into the valley, and to the “ city of the
angels,” Los Angeles, with its tropical fruits,
orange orchards, and eternal summer.

From Los Angeles, our route is to
Santa Monica, the Long Branch of the
Pacific, thence around to Wilmington
Harbor, on a visit to San Pedro’s wife,
the “Woman of the Period.” We will also
take a look at Santa Ana, Anahime, San
Gabriel, where the oldest Mission building
in the State is inruins; where orange trees
are over one hundred years old and loaded
down with the golden fruit. We will have a
run through the great vineyards and fruit
orchards of this tropical region, inspect the
Mammoth cactus pads and the huge palm
trees. From this point, “Progress” turns
more to the Hastward. Wewill follow its
track and pass over the San Barnerdino
mountains, and descend into the “Great
Colorado Desert,” rolling down, down, to
the sea level, where one would suppose
“Progress” would naturally stop, unless she

had a boat or a diving suit; but 2a, our train
starts again downward; ye Gods! down,

down we go, under the sea level two hundred
and siaty-siw feet, where sulphur springs,
mud, geysers, salt, and many other kinds
of springs—both hot and cold—are very
numerous, forcibly reminding one of the
“infernal regions;” but, as our modern

teachers have done away with that old

“bugaboo,” we suppose they would not

hesitate to visit with us this remarkable

and very interesting region, and also go
with us to Yuma, in Arizona, on the Colo-
rado River.

Let us see, we are living in a fast age;
the sun makes very good time, but “Old
Sol” is aged, has run in the same old
groove for too many years to retain much
of the spirit of Progress. It is within
the memory of many, how Morse, with
his lightning, beat the old luminary, and
we are now “talking all around him.”
Steam on the rail is next in speed; ‘one
mile a minute” is not uncommon. The
trip from New York city to San Francisco,
a distance of 8,296 miles, was commenced
June 1st, 1877, by Jarrett & Palmer, on a
special train, and the run made in 88 hours,
53 minutes, and 45 seconds, an average of