17. WESTERN INCIDENTS.

II.

DENVER CITY TO GOLDEN CITY—-IDAHO—-EMPIRE CIrY, AND BERTHOUD
PASS——-VALLEY OF CLEAR CREEK-——-MINING OPERATIONS—SCEN-
ERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

Emprrn Crry, Cororano, September 19, 1866.

Hon. Jesse L. Williams, one of the Government Direc-
tors of the Union Pacific Railroad, and myself, accom-
panied on horseback by Mr. P. T. Brown, the Assistant
Engineer, who had been making the surveys for the
road. through this wild and forbidding portion of the
route, started out from Denver on the morning of the
17th, in a comfortable covered carriage, drawn by a pair
of lazy, broken down mules, these being considered the
most safe and reliable for the rough mountain roads we
were to traverse. The outfit, as all conveyances are
designated in this country, was under the special charge
of Mr. Brooks, a most venerable and experienced moun-
taineer and driver. Our objective point was Berthoud
Pass, and our route lay up the Valley of Clear Creek, or
as near it as the road would allow us to travel.

From Denver, the base of the mountains appears so
near as to invite a short morning walk to them before
breakfast; but we only reached them after a long two
hours’ ride of twelve miles, behind our “safe and reli-
able” mules, over the intervening plains. We entered
the somewhat broken and irregular base of the first
range, or Table Mountain, as it is called, through the
opening made by the Valley of Clear Creek, instead of by