File:The Pacific tourist (1879) (14574721328).jpg

Identifier: pacifictourist1879will (find matches)
Title: The Pacific tourist
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Williams, Henry T Shearer, Frederick E
Subjects: Union Pacific Railroad Company Central Pacific Railroad Company Railroad travel Railroad travel Railroad travel
Publisher: New York : H.T. Williams
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: San Francisco Public Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
auge cai-s and locomotive.If the party is large enough for a picnic, .so muchthe better, as often flat cars are added, neatlytrimmed with evergreen l)onghs. The railroad,after leaving the station turns directly towardthe mountain range, and gradually ascends forthe first six miles, a steady grade of 200 feet tothe mile, until just before the mouth of the can-on it reaches 20(5 feet. Nothing can describe theapparent desolation of sage brush and dpk* sterileajipearance of the soil, but here and there where-ever the little mountain brook can be divertedfrom its course, and its w.ater used to irrigate theland, the richest of fruit trivs, gniss and grainspring up and give abundant crops. The littlestream, witii its rapid fall, follows us up theentire length of the canon. The upward a.scentof the grade seems hardly noticeable, of .so uni-form a sIo;>e is the surface of the country, and itis not till the b.xse of the mountains is reached,and the tourist looks back, he realizes his height,
Text Appearing After Image:
TME ^siCiFic Torjftrsr. 145 and sees in tlit; distance the clear surface of UtahLake cousideialfly below him. Gathe iiig nowon the Hat cars—wlnie the scenery can be ln^stobserved—the little train slowly enters the canon.Scarcely 500 feet are passed over before thtjrebursts upon the eye views of rock scenes of themost rujj^ijed character. lhe little valley isscarcely 100 feet broad, and in its widfst partnot over 200 feet, but from the very track and littlestream, the rocks loom ui> into hei;,hts of start-ling distinctness and almost perpendicular ele-vation. Ihe color of the rocks is uniformly of verydark red and brown granitf, appan-ntly havingonce been heated in a terril)le furnace, and thenin melting had arranged theinsi-lvcs into ruggtidand fantaalio shape more than mortal could con-ceive. At the beginning of the canon, the rocks aver-age about 800 feet in h(;ight, then, as the routeascends, the sides become more and more boldand erect,—the height greater, and the summits

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