AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE,

the water’s edge. On, past the towering
bluffs and castellated recks—which, at first
view, look like some old brown castle, for-
saken by its founders and left to ruin, deso-
lation and decay—we cross the river on a
fine Howe truss bridge; and from this point
we shall keep on the southern side of the
stream until we near Humboldt Lake,
when we cross it again, and for the last
time.

Clare—is a flag station, 104 miles
west of Palisade, reached just after emerg-
ing from the canyon. We now enter a
more open country, with strips of meadow
along the river’s brink. Near this point
is where the powder magazine of the rail-
road company exploded in 1368, while the
road was building through the canyon.

North of the river, at the point on the
opposite side, can be seen a peculiar for-
mation, not seen elsewhere in the canyon.
Where the road is cut through these points,
they consist of gravel, sand and cement,
having all the appearance of gold-bearing
gravel-beds. It is an unmistakable water-
wash, and not caused by volcanic wear—
fine layers of sand, from one to five feet
thick, and interspersed through the gravel,
showing where the water rested and the
sediment settled.

GRAVELLY Forp—one of the most no-
ted points on the Humboldt River in early
days, is near Cluro. Then the canyon
through which we have just passed was
impassable. The long lines of emigrant

wagons could not pass through the mighty |

chasm, but were obliged to turn and toil
over the mountains until they could de.
scend into the valley again. Coming to
this point on the south side of the river,
they crossed and followed up a slope of the

‘opposite hills, thence along the table-land,

and from thence to the valley above. A
few would leave the river lower down and
bear away to the south, but the road was
long and rough before ae reached the
valley above the canyon. There were and
now are other fords on the river, lower
down, but none were as safe as this. With
sloping gravelly banks and a hard gravel
bottom, it offered superior advantages to
the emigrant. Hence it became a noted
place—the point to which the westward-
bound oa ee looked forward with great
interest. Here was excellent grazing for
their travel-worn teams. Owing tothesecon-
siderations, large bodies of emigrants were
often encamped here for weeks. At times
the river would be too high, and they

109

 

would wait for the torrent to subside. The
Indians—Shoshones—knew this also, and
many a skirmish took place between them
and their white brothers, caused by mistaken
ideas regarding the ownership of the emi-
grant’s stock.

Connected with this place is an incident
which, for the honor of the men who per-
formed the Christian act, we will relate:

In the early times spoken of, a party of
emigrants were encamped here, waiting for
the water to subside. Among these emi-
srants were many women and children.

hile here, an estimable young lady of 18
years fell sick, and despite the watchful
care and loving tenderness of friends and
kindred, her pure spirit floated into that
unknown mist, dividing the real from the
ideal, the mortal from the immortal. Her
friends reared an humble head-board to her
memory, and, in course of time—amid
the new life opening to them on the Pacific
slope—the young girl’s fate and grave were
alike forgotten by all but her immediate
relatives. When the advance guard of the
Central railroad—the graders and culvert
men—came to Gravelly Ford, they found
the lone grave and fast-decaying head-
board. The site awoke the finer feelings
of their nature and aroused their sympa-
thies, for they were men, these brown, toil-
stained laborers.

The “culvert men” (masons) concluded
that it was not consistent with Christian
usage to leave a grave exposed and unde-
fended from the incursion of beasts of prey.
With such men, to think was to act, andin
a few days the lone grave was enclosed
with a solid wall, and across—the sacred
emblem of immortality—took the place of
the old head-board. In the day when the
final reckoning between these men and the
recording angel is adjusted, we think they
will find a credit for that deed which wi
offset many little debits in the ledger of
good and evil. Perhaps a fair spirit above
may smile a blessing on their lives in rec-
ompense of the noble deed. The grave is
on the south side of the road, upon a low
bluff, about five miles west of Cluro. In
October, 1871, the Superintendent of the
Division erected over it a fine large cross.

 

“ CorraL,”’ (Spanish) a pen made of posts set
on end in the ground close together, and fastened
with rawhide thongs, or by wagons drawn in a
circle forming an inclosure.

TELEGRAPH OrgRaToRs are called “lightning |
shoyers.”

Ourrit—Necessary supplies for a journey.

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