mmtn'mmmmmm ■niimiryi»>na— ifW— mmmmmnmmifmmmmm (^clM. A '^-\c\ UNIVERSITY OF AT LOS angele; ok • UNIVEF^. JFORNi/^ \jOS ANGELES, CAUF. MONUMENT PAKK.-Page 89. SOUTH BY WEST OR WINTER IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND SPRING IN MEXICO EDITED WITH A PREFACE By the Eev. CHAELES KINGSLEY, E.L.S., F.G.S. CANON OF WESTMINSTER Silith EUu0tratixrn0 W. ISBISTER & CO. 6 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY, AT THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS. , ... •-• '. « .' • .* 5 . 1 ^\ \<6 I CO f .1 I 1 ^0 mg JFatfjer anlj fHotijcr V' > ^ PREFACE. This unassuming volume vnW, I trust, prove ^ interesting to that fast-increasing class of readers ^^ who look eagerly for any fi-esh information about ' the New World, To some, I ventiu'e to beheve, it may have a sohd value, on account of the novel facts about Mexico and its capabihties wliich ^\'ill '•'• be found in it. Such persons may find it worth while to peruse, likewise, a paper on Mexico m Ocean Higlnvcujs for May 1873, by the " M." who is so often alluded to m this book. The tune for developing the vast resoiu'ces of that countiy is sm^ely close at hand. It possesses every earthly gift, save — for the present at least — the power of using them. Alone of all the countries of the world, it can produce in abundance, in its Tierra Templada and its Tierra Cahente, the riches both of the Temperate and of the Tropic Zones. Its position, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, ought to make it, some day, one of the most important highways of the world ; and when the city of Mexico is joined by a raih'oad to some port on the Pacific, as it is akeady joined — by honourable Enghsh enterprise — to Vera Cruz vm PREFACE. on the Atlantic, it ought to become the entrepot of a vast traffic, not only between CaUfoiTiia and New York, but even — so some think — between China and Europe. Heaven grant that that and all wholesome developments may be effected from within, by the Mexicans themselves, under the guidance of some ■wise and virtuous President ; and anarchy and brigandage be peacefully exterminated, by the exter- mination of their true causes — ignorance and want. If not, the work will have to be done — perhaps in rougher fashion, and perhaps sorely against their will — by the American people. However much the wisest of them may shrink from the thought of annexation, they are growing less and less inclined to tolerate, along the whole fi^ontier of Texas and New Mexico, a state of society which is as injurious to the Mexicans themselves as to the American settlers, and wliich has, in the last few years, given a pretext for armed invasion and usurpation by the Ultramontane party in Eui'ope. That experiment, it is true, is not likely soon to be repeated. But it will be the duty of the patriotic President of the United States to prevent even the chance of its repetition ; and to carry out at all risks — as far as Mexico is concerned — the " Monroe doctrine." However, we must hope better things for that fair but hapless land. We must hope that her govern- ment will so conduct itself toward foreign statesmen as to re-enter honourably the comity of Nations ; and toward foreign capitalists, so as to attract the wealth — American, Dutch, and EngHsh — wliich is PREFACE. IX ready to flow into and fertilize and pacify the whole country. But there is another object, of even deeper in- terest, which I cannot but help hoping that this book may further : namely, that better understand- ing between American and British citizens, which is growing so fast just now. Eveiy one who knows anything of the Americans of the older States, knows also that they are a generous, affectionate, and high-minded people, who put a courteous and modest visitor under hea\y obhgations, not only for the bounty of their hospi- tality, but for the pleasure of their society. But too many, I fear, misled by the reports of cynics and bookmakers, are unaware that the same good quah- ties are to be found in the distant territories, in the very wilds of the Bocky Mountains themselves, as well as in the older East and South ; and that the border-fringe of ruffianism — which must exist on the frontier of any vast country — which is no worse now in Texas or New Mexico than it was two centuries ago in many border districts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, rapidly retreats before that most poteut of civilizers, the raih'oad, as it pours in, from the distant regions of the old States, a perpetual rem- forcement of the good, to diive the bad further and further into yet more desolate wildernesses. Much which the authoress may have longed to say, she could not say, for fear of trenching upon private con- fidences : but she has said enough, I trust, in her sketch of the foimdation and rapid growth of a colony X PREFACE. in Colorado, at the foot of the very wildest part of the E-ocky Mountains, to show that, even there, face to face with the most brutal Red Indian, not only hospitality and humanity, virtue and probity, but cultivation and refinement are to be found among men and women who are not ashamed to labour with their own hands, ennobled by the sense that they are doing a great work — replenishing the earth and subduing it. And even of those who may have less cultivation or refinement, I know that I can say this at least. As long as the man of the Far West is not ashamed of honest toil, and as long as his courtesy and chivalry toward women is as perfect as I am assured it is, so long he will find that every real English gentleman who visits him will recognise in him a gentleman likewise. I am bound to add — in my pleasant capacity of editor to this book — that it owes nothino- whatso- ever to my pen, beyond the mere correction of the press, and the scientific names of a few animals and flowers. The whole of the physical facts — botanical, zoological, or geological — were observed or collected by the authoress herself. CHAELES KINGSLEY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. PAGE First land — Our pilot — New York harbour — The doctor — A puzzled official — The streets of New York — Central Park — Hellgate Ferry — Maples — Picture of Washington — Fast trotters — A drive in a buggy — Start for Niagara — The Kenisteo Valley — " Run over a keaow " — Portage — The train- boy— Niagara — English service — The rapids — A horrible story — Des Vaux College — The Whirlpool — Leave Niagara — The smoke of Chicago — A friend in need — West Point — The Catling gun — A terrible little shot — Our first American service, . . . . .1 CHAPTER II. FROM EAST TO WEST. Down the Hudson — Trains in the streets — Parlour cars — Baltimore — An American country-house- — The Convention of 1871 — Start for the West — St. Louis — "Arctic Soda" — Mustang fever — Kansas city — The Plains — Prairie dogs — An old "rattler" — BufFalos — United States forts — A railroad feat — Denver and the Rocky Mountains — The pioneer narrow-gauge railroad — Pike's X eaK, ■ a , , . . • .^"x CHAPTER III. LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. A series of surprises — The young tovni — Our shanty and its fittings — How we live — Glen Eyrie — Tea in a loft— Bird-cage making — xii CONTENTS. PAGE A " scare" — House-warming — The Soda Springs — A trapper — "Walk to Mount Washington — School — Move to our new quar- ters — Staging and stage-drivers, . . . .47 CHAPTER IV. LIFE IN A NEW TOWN — continued. .The weather — Washing and cooking — The penalties of a free country — Visitors from Denver — A snowy pillow — The cold "snap" — • A presentiment — Sunshine again — The Falls of the Fountain — Starting a reading-room — Colonist-catching — The Garden of the Gods — Pete shows his wisdom, . . . . .65 CHAPTER V. CANONS AND COLD. My first Canon — Wild beasts — Pleasant society — A spelling match — Camp Creek Caiion — Exploring by moonlight — Mountain air — Snow drifts — Triumph of the Narrow Gauge — The Fountain ditch — A Westerner — Antelope-shooting — A grand view — A change in our plans, . . . . . .77 CHAPTER VI. MONUMENT PARK. Expedition to Monument Park— A cheap dinner — The monuments — A rough road — School-keeping a failure — Locating the skating pond — Snow-birds — A second jMouumeut Park — The southern mountains — " Over the Ratons," . . . .87 CHAPTER VII. CHRISTJIAS AND NEW YEAR. A Christmas treat — Stock-farmers' troubles — The western metropolis — Parlour skates — The fall of the Ulsters — Sleighing — A warm Christmas day — Christmas tree— God save the Queen — My first Indian — A wind storm — Now Year's Day — Our new hotel — Ute Indians— A " surprise party " — Cow-catching a dangerous amusement, . . . . , . .98 CONTENTS. XIU CHAPTER VIII. MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. PAGE Bronco manners — Mountain ajjpetites — The Eainljow Fall — A scramble — The new road — Trailing Arbutus — Glenwood MiUs — Beavers — A cold bath — Arkansas hospitality — The Ute pass — A scare — A " washing bee " — Our first Ei)iscopal service — The ditch full at last— Growth of the town — A ride over the mesa — An exploring expedition — The " Pike's Peak gold fever" — A " cold snap " — Our concert, . . . 108 CHAPTER IX. LAST DAYS IN COLORADO. Valentine's Day— The "Iron Ute "—Move to Glen Eyrie— The Servant Question — Snow blockade on the Union Pacific — A perilous path — The land of sui-prises — Cheyenne caiion — A dis- tant view — Prospecting on Pike's Peak — Colonists — The irate market-gardeners — Indians and their doings — Farewell to Colorado, ....... 125 CHAPTER X. COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. Surface features — Climate — Irrigation — Timber — The mining in- terest — Coal beds — Attractions to settlers — The snowy range — Population — Denver — The Denver and Rio Grande Railway — Colorado Springs : its foundation and growth — The Soda Springs — Pueblo — Caiion City — Difference between the Old and New Worlds, . . . . . . 1 37 CHAPTER XI. THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. Denver Pacific Railroad — A pigs' paradise — The highest railroad point in the world — Snowbucking — How to keep well — Sage- brush and sandstones — The Mormon Railroad — Great Salt Lake City — Angelic architects — Commerce and holiness — Shoshonee Indians — A lofty breakfast-room — Miners — Flowers — Poison- oak — -California — The Pacific at last, .... 152 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIT. CALIFORNIA. PAGE Calif ornian oysters — The Seal Rocks — A Western play — Chinese opium-eaters and tem])le — An opera "buffa" — Earthquakes — Sacramento Bay — San Raphael — A council of war — Seal and salmon — Preparations for journey — Yo Semite photographs — The San Jose Valley — A Calif ornian country-house — The suc- cessful millionnaire — Chinese servants — Adios California, . 166 CHAPTER XIIL DOWN THE PACIFIC. The " peaceful ocean " — A tumble — Sea-gull and Spanish lessons — An odious child — Orchilla — The new " Earthly Paradise " — -A narrow escape — Sunday — An addition to our party — Gloomy forebodings, . . . . . . .178 CHAPTER XIV. ' FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. The Puerto de Manzanillo — Frijoles and tortillas — Mexican meals — The exports of the port — Our start for the interior — The Laguna de Cuyiitlan — The delights of a night joiirney — Guadalupe — Salt collecting — Don Ignacio Lagos — Lace and embroidery — Tropic woods — Ptumours of the Revolution — Tecolapa — A rough road — The volcano of Colima — Colima — Feast-day sights — Martial music — Easter decorations — A huerto — The Alameda — Hacienda de San Cayetano — The eruption of February 26th — More news of the Revolutionists, . ,184 CHAPTER XV. ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. Our start — An ill-broken team — La Quesaria — Chicken wine — Bar- rancas — Saia Marcos — Mule trains— An uncomfortable luncheon — The " Pedrirjal " — A break-down — Zapotlan — A revolution — The bafBed bridegroom — Rough lodgings — Pulque — Severe — An early breakfast — A " scare " — Onions — "Los bonitos rifles " — Pronunciados — Alkali flats — A dry lake — " A friend indeed" — Our escort — La Coronilla — Robber towns — Guadalajara at last, ........ 206 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XVI. GUADALAJARA, PAGE The Paseo— Barricades — The Belen Cemetery — Attractive baths — A fortunate escape — The Cathedral — Confessionals — EUlos])icio — Senor Menesses — A clean kitchen — Embroidery — The Cuna — A wonderful contralto — Helados — A wicked bull — Pottery — The opera — The States Prison — An embarrassing present — Mexican troops — How to make a pronunciamiento, . . 232 CHAPTER XVII. UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. The Rio Grande de Santiago — Ocotlan — Ordering dinner — The rob- bers — La Barca — An escape — A luxurious bed — Dug-out canoes — Buena Vista — A dead robber — Wine-growing and pedrigal — " Una SeHorifa tan grande" — The faithless negro — Farms and farming — The Padre's " boys " — An indigestible meal — Hanging a robber — Irapuato — Molasses candy — Swape wells — Cereus and nopals — Salamanca — Singing birds — The churches of Celaya — Indian music — A story of the '' Plagiarios" — Peru pepper — Jumping cactus — A pretty leap — Approach to Queretaro, ....... 244 CHAPTER XVIII. QUERETARO TO MEXICO. A bet — The Hercules Factory — Cheap labour — Arrival of the en- gineers from Colorado — Las Campanas — Leave Queretaro — Spearing a dog — The Divide — San Juan del Rio — Thunder- storm — An uuluckj' choice of routes — Ill-requited kindness — Barred out — An Indian school — The valley of the Tula — The broken break — Gathering nopal leaves — The cajiital of the Toltecs — An early start — On Cortez's track — The valley of Mexico — The railroad track — Arrival in the city, . . 2GS CHAPTER XIX. LIFE IN MEXICO. Tlio Hotel Iturbide — Flowers — Tacubaya — The Paseo — Aztec calendar stone — The Inquisition — Cathedral of Mexico — A ride XVI CONTENTS. PAGE round the city — Cinco de Mayo — Chapultepec — The Pronun- cianiiento of October 1S71 — El Peuoa del Agua Caliente — Executions by the Liberals — Breakfast at the San Cosme — Speeches — The Habanera — Mexican salutations, . . 285 CHAPTER XX. LIFE IN MEXICO — Continued. Indios and their costumes — Street cries — Guadalupe — Arrival of the engineers — Trying a gun — An agua cerro — Drainage — The Academia — Aztec arts — The Palacio — A Mexican debate — Chills and fever — Gizzard tea — The Monte Pio — The tree of the Noche Triste — A narrow bridge — Departure of the engineering party — Feast of Corpus Christi — Tacubaya — The Museum — A "useful man" — The considerate co?nparfre, . . . 309 CHAPTER XXI. LIFE IN MEXICO — Continued. Visit to Guadalupe — Origin of the miraculous serape — The collegiate church — Votive offerings — Church of Tepayac — Sulphur spring — Letter from M. — Popotla and Tacuba — Molino del Rey — The battles of August and September 1847 — An unfortunate haciendado — Last evening in Mexico, .... 336 CHAPTER XXIL A RECONNAISSANCE IN THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. Preparations — Breakfast at Santa Ft^ — The unreasonable command- ante — Over the Sierra — " Escolta " — Pueblos of the Toluca valley — Tenancingo — My new guide — The barrancas — A bad ford — The old pack-horse takes a swim — A curious phenome- non — The cave of Cacahuamili^a — Bananas and sugar-cane — The Mexican Sindbad — An army of bats — Stoning iguanas — Hacienda of San Gabriel — Ixtapan de la Sal — " A bad place " — The romance of the skunk — Back to Mexico, . . 357 CONTENTS. xvii CHAPTER XXIII. THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. PAGE TeocaUis of the Sun and Moon — Pulque — Puebla de los Angelos — Churches and relics — Sta. Florenzia — Muddy roads— The steel works of Amozoe — Cacti — A midnight start — The Peak of Orizaba — Down the cumhres — Orizaba — A wild team — The rail- road again — Vera Cruz — The Vomito and the Norte — Gachu- pines and parrots — Farewell to Mexico, . . , 382 CHAPTER XXIV. MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES, . . . .399 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MONUMENT PARK, .... HORSE-SHOE BEND, ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS, DRUG AND BOOK STORE, PRAIRIE RANCHE NEAR SALINA, PRAIRIE DOGS, . STREET IN DENVER, OUR SHANTY, THE CANON IN GLEN EYRIE, THE GATE OF THE GARDEN OF THE GODS, CROSSING A TRESTLE BRIDGE, MONUMENT CREEK, THE MONUMENT ROCKS, INDIANS, .... PIKE'S PEAK, THE ROCKS NEAR GREEN RIVER, WOMAN MAKING TORTILLAS, BELL TOWER AT COLIMA, THE CATHEDRAL, GUADALAJARA, THE CATHEDRAL, MEXICO, , THE PALACE OF CHAPULTEPEC, THE TREE OF THE NOCHE TRISTE, Frontispiece. PAGE 29 33 35 ol 43 49 51 74 75 88 90 105 114 157 1S7 198 235 292 299 325 CHAPTEE I. NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. First land— Our pilot— New York harbour— The doctor— A puzzled official— The streets of New York- Central Park— Hellgate Ferry— Maples— Picture of Washington — Fast trotters — A drive in a buggj- — Start for Niagara— The Kenisteo Valley — " Run over a keaow" — Portage — The train-boy — Niagara — English service— The Rapids— A horrible story — Des Vaux College— The Whirlpool— Leave Niagara— The smoke of Chicago— A friend in need — West Point— The Gatling gun— A terrible little shot — Our first American service. In the autumn of 1871 the Episcopal Church Convention of the United States was held in Baltimore, and the Dean of Chester accepted the invitation of many Americans to attend as one of the representatives of the Church of England. He most kindly asked me to join him and his family in their journey to America. We left Liverpool on September 2 2d, and on Sunday morning, October 1st, after a prosperous voyage, we sighted the shores of the New World. First appeared Far Island, and then Long Island, which gradually became more and more distinct, till we could see houses upon it. Land-birds came flying round the ship, a large one like an oriole settling on the mast ; and a shoal of sharp-nosed dolphins played round us, leaping four or five feet out of the water. The evening before, while we were at dinner, still 300 miles from New York, for the first time since leaving Queenstown the engines had slackened their ceaseless beat, and a general stampede for the deck ensued, to see our pilot come on board. The good-natured captain allowed M. and A 2 SOUTH BY WEST. me to come up on the bridge ; and there, half a mile ahead on the starboard bow, lay a pretty little schooner of fifteen or twenty tons, and on the port bow a tiny rowing-boat. We went slower and slower, till as the little boat slid alongside, looking as if she must be sucked under the huge ship, the engines stopped for just one minute. The great man, in purple kid gloves, a tall hat, and a pilot jacket, climbed up the side ; a dozen hands were stretched out to help him over the bulwarks ; and as his feet touched the deck, " Full speed ahead ! " roared the captain, and away we went again. About 1 P.M. on Sunday we passed Sandy Hook light- house, and found ourselves in the outer bay of New York. The sky was cloudless, the sun intensely hot, and the sea like glass. Away to the left beyond Sandy Hook rose the heights of New Jersey, lost in mist at the furthest point of a huge semicircle of many miles, joined to Staten Island by a bit of low swamp land, covered, I was told, with red cedars and cranberries, in which you may get good shooting and bad fever. Staten Island was on our left bow, clustered with charm- ing villas buried in trees down to the very water's edge, end- ing at the Narrows or entrance into the inner bay in an escarped hill, with Fort Tomkins above and Fort Wadsworth in the water. On our north, opposite Sandy Hook, lay Far Eockaway, Eockaway, and Coney Island, famed for clams, in front of Long Island, which ended on our right bow at the Narrows with two more forts bristling with 2 2 -inch guns. The part of Long Island between the forts and Brooklyn is where Washington was defeated by the English after Saratoga, and forced to retire upon New York through a swamp where Brooklyn now stands, in which he lost a great number of his men. Passing the Narrows about L30, we anchored inside New York harbour, and waited patiently for the Health officers and Custom-house authorities to come on board. NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 3 The scene was marvellously beautiful, — Brooklyn on the right ; then beyond East Eiver lay New York itself, the spire of Trinity Church rising far above all the other many spires and towers ; then the mouth of the Hudson or North River, as it is called at New York, with Jersey City on its further side ; and as a background the blue ridge of the Palisades, 300 feet high. We were soon summoned below to the saloon to be inspected by the doctor ; and, crowding in, sat positively suffocating for some time, no doctor appearing ; till at last a voice at the door announced, " You have been inspected, and the doctor has passed you all," and out we trooped again. But how it was managed — whether the doctor marked us down as we went in, or took a telescopic view of us through the windows — no one ever found out. Our good luck did not end here ; for the Custom-house officers, being in an amiable frame of mind, decided to send us ashore with our baggage, about which matter there had been great doubts and many discussions. So the Company's tender, with its black funnel and white band (" The Par- son's Tie," the sailors call it), came off; and by three we started across the bay for the Custom-house. We flew through the water in the strange low- decked little boat, with a platform between the paddles, and the " walking beam " working above the deck, as is the case in all the low-pressure engines, which are exclusively used for river boats. The ferry-boats we passed looked most grotesque to our eyes, white painted, with deck piled on deck, and surmounted by their walking beam and tall funnels. Arrived at last at the Custom-house, we found Dr. C. awaiting us on the gangway. After two large waggon-loads of mail-sacks had been cleared out, the luggage began to come on shore ; and how anything got through safe I cannot imagine. Truck after truck was run to the edge, and the hapless boxes dashed down upon them with a crack that made one's bones ache in 4 SOUTH BY WEST. very sympathy. After all our things were collected, Dr. C. took one of the officials aside, and, in a confidential and im- pressive manner, said to him, "Now, look here, the Dean of C. has just come over from England ; so I 'm sure you will pass his things out as quick as possible." The poor man, who did not the least know what sort of a creature a Dean was, thought he must at least be some tremendous foreign potentate, and looked duly impressed. The consequence therefore was, that our boxes were hardly opened, but chalked and passed in no time ; a gTcat contradiction to the accounts we had been hearing of the severity and rudeness of the New York Custom-house. The building itseK is a huge shed, 50 feet high and 200 yards long, and at the end was an iron grille, through which men were thrusting their hands with cards of hacks, and screaming to the new-comers to take them. We forced our way through the noisy crowd to the two carriages which were waiting for us, and drove off. The streets near the river had a strangely foreign look, reminding me more of some West Indian town, with their green jalousies and shady side-walks, than of any English city. But when at last we got into Fifth Avenue we began to see the full magnificence of this splendid city. The houses are very lofty, built of a rich dark-brown sandstone, with a great deal of mica in it, which comes from Ohio ; or of a yellowish white New Jersey stone ; or of beautiful white marble, which, owing to the purity and clearness of the air, never seems to get dirty. Up the houses Wistaria grew with an almost tropical luxuriance, and Virginia creeper, just turning red, climbed right up to the roofs. Many houses had a tiny bit of garden, with brilliant green turf and brisht flowers in front. On each side of the streets trees were planted, ailanthus, maple, sumach, catalpa, broad-leaved birch, and weeping willows, which last grow to a prodigious size. XEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 5 Monday, 2d. — After breakfast, unpacking, and writing letters, we wandered out down Fifth Avenue a little way. We passed some eight churches, all of different denomina- tions, including Episcopal, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Catholic, Universalist, and a magnificent Jewish Synagogue just oppo- site our host's house. It is built of red stone, relieved by the most delicate white stonework, giving it quite a Moorish look, and two cupolas on the street side tower high into the air. The Jewish population of New York is estimated at 60,000, and they seem very much respected. We were greatly struck by the enormous w^ealth which all this quarter represents. The rents are perfectly fabulous. One of our friends told us that the whole yearly rent of a large house he lived in, in one of the flourishing New Eng- land cities, was less than the rates and taxes he pays yearly on his own house which he has built on Thirty-eighth Street. In the afternoon we were taken a drive through Central Park. It is beautiful, and unlike anything one has ever seen before. Broken ground with large sheets of water blasted out of the grey rocks, which are covered with Virginia creeper, just turning red, and crawling all over the ground. The trees are well grouped : black walnut, now turning purple ; maple, sumach, oaks, and birches. Beds of flowers are scattered here and there ; the red salvia especially, in masses of blazing scarlet. On the right of the main road is the beginning of a Zoological Garden, with elands, buffalos, and deer, grazing peaceably close to the carriage-way, and children riding camels over the grass. The roads are per- fect, made of pulverized stone rolled down with heavy two- horse rollers. The horses look so w^ell fed and groomed, and the rollers and water-carts in the park are so neat, that they might belong to some gentleman's garden, with his carriage- horses harnessed to them. Odohcr 4. — This afternoon we drove with Dr. H. through Central Park to the Hellgate Perry, over East Eiver, which 6 SOUTH BY WEST. is an arm of the sea connecting the harbour with Long Island Sound. The river, though navigable above and below, is so blocked up at this point with masses of rock under water, as to make the passage impossible for large ships. This is a serious disadvantage to shipping, forcing the Atlantic ships and steamers to come far out of their way round the outside of Long Island, wdth the dangerous bar to cross before they can reach the harbour ; and the Government are now carrying out a scheme for removing the obstacle to make a safe passage for the largest steamers. Under the water large bodies of men are working, blasting innumerable galleries through the rock, and in a few years they hope the whole bed will be cleared. We crossed over to Astoria on Long Island in the ferry- boat, which runs every half hour, Dr. H.'s two spirited horses standing like rocks the whole way over ; and on landing drove up through the village of charming villas, buried in trees and gardens. Turning to the left through an avenue of high trees, we came down to the side of the East Eiver again, and drove some way along a road between the houses and the water. The views across to the land were beautiful in the extreme. It was a hazy, warm afternoon, and the trees were just beginning to turn. Certainly no description or even painting has ever given one an idea of what the autumn tints are in reality. The maples were here and there perfectly dazzling — pure clear amber below, then every shade through orange till the tips of the branches and tops of the tree were bright scarlet. It is the clearest colouring I ever saw : nothing to remind one of death or decay ; the live healthy tree becomes transformed into a flame of fire. We paid several visits. One dear old Dutch cottage, a perfect museum of treasures of art, paintings and sculptures inside, had in its garden a rock on which Washington had smoked many a pipe, for he was quartered at the house during the War of Independence. Another house near by, belonging to Mr. W., NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 7 was just the ideal of the American country-house one reads of in books ; large and roomy, with a broad raised wooden piazza without any balustrade, running all round it, upon which was scattered every variety of rocking chair. There we were shown a small portrait of Washington, painted while he was President. It was very beautiful : a noble steadfast face in profile, looking away into the future with deep-set earnest eyes — a man, indeed, to found a new nation. Mr. W.'s grandfather was one of those who signed the Declara- tion, and held a distinguished post in the first American government ; and he bought the picture soon after Wash- ington's death. We turned homewards after this visit, meeting many of the city men driving from their work to their country-houses, in their delightful spider-wheeled waggons, with fast-trotting horses. When we were safe on the broad streets across the ferry. Dr. H. showed us how fast his horses could trot, and gave me the reins when they were trotting as fast as a good gallop. It was the most curious sensation, as the traces were quite slack, and the waggon, with four souls in it, was pulled by my hands. I held on for about five minutes, using the whole of my strength, and then had ignominiously to give up the reins, or I should have just dropped them. Thursday, bth. — Directly after breakfast I had a drive in a buggy with a thoroughbred trotter through Central Park, and across the Haarlem river, by a wooden bridge, to a lovely bit of wild country, past the High Bridge which brings the water of the Croton aqueduct into New York, through winding lanes, with pretty cottages here and there, festooned with vines, and gardens full of squashes and Indian corn. Here corn is always called " wheat," and maize is known as " corn" par excellence. I hardly know whether I most enjoyed the country or the mere fact of passing through the air, for as we came home " Kentucky" was made to show off his paces, and trotted at the rate of a mile in 2 minutes 50 seconds. S SOUTH BY WEST. Friday, Qth. — After our few charming days in New York, during which we met with kindness and hospitality on all sides that we can never forget, we started for Niagara by the 5 p.m. train, on the Erie Eailway. Crossing from New York to Jersey City in one of the huge river ferry- boats, we pushed our way to tlie train, through a crowd of the great unwashed, along the dirty, ill-lighted depot : but, once in the luxurious sleeping car all discomfort ceased. We had the compartment for four at the end of the car all to ourselves, with arm-chairs, sofa, footstools, and even our own washstand and looking-glass ; with liberty to walk through the rest of the car, or the whole train, if we wished : though no one, save the conductor, could invade our little room. The evening was dark and wet, so we saw nothing of the country, except where here and there the great bell on the engine began to toll, and the red light from the blazing furnace fire was reflected on the houses as we ran through the open streets of some town, with no protection for the passers-by save their own wits. At Turner's, a station forty-eight miles from New York, we stopped a quarter of an hour for supper, and got an ex- cellent one of tongue, coffee, and delicious bread, for 25 cents each ; after which we turned in for the night, tempted by the snowy pillow-cases, clean sheets, and gay Californian blankets with which the car-porter had invitingly spread our berths. I should doubtless have slept the whole night through, had not the house-flies in New York bitten my face and hands till I was nearly wild ; and had not showers of sand, not to say cinders, flown in my face through the ventilators : but these were only slight discomforts ; and I woke at 5.30 quite refreshed, and very glad to wash hands and face with clean water and good soap, provided in the ladies' dressing-room outside our compartment. As the day dawned we became gradually aware of the NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 9 wonderful beauty of the scenery through which we were passing. We had left the valley of the Chemung, and were running up the Kenisteo river. Wooded hills on each side, covered with forests of maple, birch, oak, hickory, tulip, chestnut, pine, hemlock, and willow— like our English black willow — by the water ; the undergrowth composed chiefly of raspberry, sumach, cypress, asters, and golden rod. On either side of the river were fields of maize in shocks, with bright orange pumpkins lying between the rows ; or open pastures, in which fine horses and cattle were feeding. The fields were divided by "worm" fences — known in Canada as Snake- fences — or by root -fences, made of the upturned roots and stumps of large trees. The stumps were left standing in the ground where the soil was not very good ; and where it was worth while to get rid of them, either burnt standing, or torn up with some machine. The houses, built mostly of wood, reminded one of Swiss chalets, with deep eaves : but with- out the picturesque decorations. The slope of glowing trees, of every possible shade, from palest amber to deep carmine, mingled with gaunt bare pine stems, or deep black hemlocks, down to the river, was beau- tiful in the extreme ; especially where at some bend in the track a further ridge came in sight, with intense blue sha- dows brought out by the brilliant foreground. But unluckily beautiful scenery will not satisfy the craving of hunger ; and we were lookimj forward to seven o'clock for breakfast at HornellsviUe with great delight, when, at a quarter to seven, outside the little station of Kenisteo, we came to a standstill. On inquiring, we found that " a freight car was off the track," a man observing coolly, "Kun over a keaow, I guess !" which proved to be the case. So there we had to wait, let the down train pass us, get on the down track, and run up it for some distance, till we came to the next "switch" or siding. While we were waiting there, not over comfortable at our position, a train passed us to go to the switch at 10 SOUTH BY WEST. Kenisteo, with several large open trucks full of blue barrels. These we were told were " oil tanks," otherwise petroleum cans, — pleasant neighbours on a jolting track. The tanks are now made of iron, an improvement on the old barrels : but, as a New York fellow-passenger remarked to us, " It 's about as safe as gunpowder." At last the train moved on ; and, passing the oil train, we got to Hornellsville, and our much-coveted and excellent breakfast, some of which we carried off, as we had hardly time to satisfy ourselves before the cry of " All aboard " from the conductor warned us that time was up. In about two hours we came near Portage ; and the con- ductor of our car took us out on the back platform to get the best view of the bridge, which is one of the wonders of the country. It is a " trestle bridge," built entirely of wood 800 feet long and 223 feet high, across the Genessee river, which here has eaten its way through the limestone rocks, and made a deep chasm. Below the bridge, the river falls into a deep basin of stone, then into a second, and then rushes away to the foot of a large conical rock, under which it turns sharply, another stream falling over the rock in a splendid waterfall, and joining the Genessee below ; while all is softened, and yet brightened, by the vivid colouring of the trees on the crest of the cliffs. After Portage came rather a different kind of country, as we were out of the Kenisteo valley. Forest close to the rail ; sometimes a clearing in process of making ; fallen trees, burning stumps, men with their axes hewing off the branches or loading the carts. Then upland fields, with here and there a vineyard. As we neared Buffalo it became still more open, with wide pastures, worm fences, wooded hill- tops, and at last a glimpse of distant blue flat-topped heights, on the further side of Lake Erie. A boy had appeared in the cars after breakfast, dropping a tempting book on each seat, and returning just as the un- NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 1 1 wary had had time to feel a slight interest in the letterpress, for his book or his money. Now he came round with Buffalo Morning Express; and then again, offering us Isabella or Cat- auba grapes, with a tough inside and foxy flavour. Buffalo, where we stopped and changed engines, looked very unin- teresting, on a dead flat. We saw nothing but six spires, a lot of shingle houses, and a great deal of smoke in the distance ; with a fore-ground of large sheds, a good many cows, a boy and a dog. We now turned off on quite another line, and ran through a level country for some miles, with dikes on each side of the rail, filled with reeds, asters, Oenothera, and golden rod ; and our young friend the train-boy soon re- appeared with apples, candy, and books of Niagara water- falls, and the "Great Western Money Package." This packet, price one dollar, is said on its wrapper to contain " Silver and gold in each package up to $2.50 (10s.). " 1 quire superfine quality paper. " 1 packet sup. envelopes. " 1 penholder and pen. " 1 sheet blotting-paper. " 1 photograph. " 5 views of Niagara Falls." I saw a good many packages opened, chiefly by honeymoon couples, who abound on this line : but none of them con- tained the promised coin. Then, running through some woods, we emerged beside what seemed a large and perfectly smooth lake about a mile and a half across, wooded down to the water : but on looking as far as one could beyond the train, a white cloud appeared, rising apparently from behind a wooded point ; and in a moment we knew that our lake must be the Niagara river ; the cloud was the column of spray from the Falls; and we gazed with all our eyes, till, plunging into the woods again, river and all was shut out. After some consultation we decided to cross the lower 12 SOUTH BY WEST. SQspension bridge in the cars, and get our first view from thence ; and when the time came, and the good-natured con- ductor took us out again on the back platform as we crept over the lofty bridge, we went rather in fear as to what our first impression would be. But in a moment there was no shadow of doubt on our minds. A dead silence ; and then an irrepressible exclamation of wonder and delight. There, two miles up the gorge, at the head of a smooth green blue river, between high limestone cliffs, covered with blazing maples and black pines, was Niagara. When we had escaped the mob of yelling cab-drivers, who pounce on the luckless traveller almost before the train stops at the station, and had found our way in a comfortable carriage up to the Clifton House, our first thought was to rush out to the upper suspension bridge, and there to stand in silence trying to realize the whole thing. The extreme beauty struck us more than anything else. There was nothing horrible — hardly awful. The water as it fell looked so soft. I tried to think of what it reminded me most in substance, and all I could think of was whipped cream ! — a sad bathos, but true. The sound of the water was soft, harmonious, musical, and, though strong, was never oppressive. The sun was bright, the air still ; so that the spray rose straight up into the blue sky. Sunday, 8th. — The sound of the Falls made sleep all but impossible. I was longing all night for day to dawn, that I might see them again ; and when daylight came their aspect was completely changed. A strong wind was blow- ing, driving the spray down towards us, and covering all the view in a fine bluish white mist ; the early sun caught half the Horse-shoe fall, leaving the rest in shadow ; and lighted up the mass of blazing maples and Virginia creepers close to us. The Eector, Mr. M'C, called for us at 10.30, and we had a glorious walk along the cliff over the river to his church at Clifton. We had a very nice service, the Dean preaching : & NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 13 and it felt home-like hearing the prayers for the Queen so far away. The singing was good, but peculiar. A very pretty young lady played the harmonium, and three others and a gentleman sang. The fittings of the tiny church are good, though plain, made of the white pine of the country, topped with black walnut, which is very handsome. After service we walked back to the hotel, and then drove up to dinner at Mr. B.'s. There were several Englishmen there, and after dinner we all set out for a long walk. First we went to a high point directly over the Horse- shoe Fall, where we got the finest view we had yet seen, through a frame of maple and hickory. Then, turning up the railroad track, we walked along it for some distance, to my horror, till assured that there were no trains on Sunday, and that, if there were, it would not matter. Then a steep bit of road led us down to the level of the river. The water was quite quiet near the bank : but passing a small island we came suddenly upon a scene of fearful grandeur. We were within half a dozen feet of the rapids. Then for the first time we realized the awful force of the water. We sat on the bank throwing in pieces of wood ; watching them whirled along ; listening to the horrible stories of the accidents this year ; till the place seemed haunted, — especially as the greatest tragedy took place close to where we sat. A man was crossing the river some way up. His boat by some means was swamped ; and he was swept down towards the rapids. He swam the whole way, till he came close to the spot we were on, where at that time some workmen of Mr S., who owns all this side of the river, were making a bridge. He made straight for them, swimming gallantly, tliinking he was saved, and came within a few feet of the bank. They stretched a pole out to him to help him : but it was too short : they missed him ! All hope was gone : and he just made straight for the Fall, still swimming, and, as he reached the edge, put his hands above his head, raised himself up, and dived clean 1 4 SOUTH BY WEST. over. His body was found torn limb from limb below the FaUs. We were glad to shake off such painful impressions, and wander on to Mr. S.'s beautiful place. His house is on the high ground, with woods and shrubberies down to the water, where a dozen little islands lie clustered, connected with pretty bridges, and fringed with a brilliant yeUow-green reed about a foot high, which grows in all still creeks round this part of Canada. Coming back, Mr. B., who is a good botanist, helped us out of some of our puzzles about the new trees and flowers we saw at every step. I got to know locust beans, button- wood nuts, a kind of plane, black walnuts — and learnt to my cost the difference between hickory and bitter hickory nuts, which look just alike, till you unwarily try, and tasting the wTong one seem to be eating a mixture of sloe- juice and tannin. We walked home in the twilight, down a ravine in the cliff, half way between the Horse-shoe and the hotel; the American FaU, right before us, shut in the view like a huge white curtain ; and when we got in it was quite dark. Mondmj, 9th. — Out sketching on the piazza by 7.30 ; a splendid day : hot sun and strong breeze. After breakfast the M'C.s called for us, and we went down three miles to Des Vaux College, on the American side. Mr. P., the head master, and his wife, took us all over it. There are about fifty boys, foundationers and term boys. They are nearly aU gentlemen's sons. The College is conducted en- tirely on the military system, and seems most perfect in its arrangement. The dormitories were beautifully fresh and neat ; each boy has his alcove, and has to keep it tidy, and make his own bed. Some of the rooms were gay with pictures and photographs. We went to the schoolroom, where the Dean spoke a few words to the boys ; then into the armoury, where their muskets are kept ; and on through NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 15 dining-room, kitchen, and washing-room. Here Mrs. H. and I were much attracted by a capital kind of brush for cleaning boots, combining blacking and cleaning brush, with a nice handle into the bargain. Mrs. P. was so amused at our raptures that she dived into her store cupboard, and presented me with a new one on the spot. The famous whirlpool belongs to the College, and is a large source of income, as visitors have to pay a slight toll for going to see it. Above, looking up to the railroad bridge, the river is a mass of white foaming boiling rapids, leaping into the air, and ending in the angle of the cliffs in an apparently smooth round pool, which is in fact the w^hirlpool. At this point the river is completely shut in with high cliffs, covered with dark trees ; and one thinks there can be no outlet : till, turning the point, you find that it makes a sudden bend at right angles, still between high wooded chffs ; then another bend, and it is lost behind the hiQs above Queenstown and Lake Ontario. There are rapids below the whirlpool : but they are not so dangerous. The ' Maid of the Mist ' is the only boat that ever got safe through. There are always things floating in the whirlpool, sailing gently round and round till they touch the centre, when down they go in an instant, and do not emerge till they get a quarter of a mile down the river. We "concluded" to spare ourselves the long climb down and up 300 steps to the river, as the sun was broiling, and we had a hard day before us ; and so drove straight to the Falls city. If travellers get their first impressions from the road on the American side, I can better understand their being disgusted with the place. — Wooden shanties, desolate- looking trees, untidy little stores, German gasthaliser and wirthschaften, and horribly dusty roads. The Falls city, however, is a pleasant place, with good stores of photo- graphs and Indian curiosities. 16 SOUTH BY WEST. r A visit to the drawing-room of the Cataract Hotel, which overhangs the rapids, only served to increase our satisfaction at being on the Canadian side ; for the view of the Falls is entirely lost, and you are only impressed with the rush and turmoil of the rapids. We explored Goat Island : but resisted all entreaties to risk our necks and get a ducking by going down to the " Cave of the Winds," below the American Fall, being quite content with its beauty from Luna Island, where the water, as it takes its great leap, looks like threads of spun glass, clear as crystal. October 1 0th. — It was hard, after three days of such per- fect enjoyment, to tear ourselves away from Niagara. Each hour that we stayed only brought out some fresh beauty, and made us long to spend weeks there instead of days. Were any one to take the whole journey from England and back again, and see nothing in America but Niagara, it would, I think, be well worth the trouble. But time was short ; so on Tuesday morning we found ourselves on board the cars for Kingston, via Toronto. This part of our journey was not enjoyable ; as, when one is once accustomed to the novelty of snake-fences, small farms, backwoods, clearings, and blackened trees, the constant repetition becomes rather tedious : and we were not sorry to reach Toronto, and spend some hours there in poking about the streets and making- small investments in the fur trade, till it began to rain. About 6 P.M. we left by .rail for Kingston, and most foolishly, in our ignorance, did not take places in the sleeping-car. Anything more uncomfortable than the six hours we passed in that train I have seldom felt : smothered with petroleum from the lamps — the lashing rain forcing us to keep the windows up — noisy fellow-passengers, and a road that nearly jolted one to pieces. At 2 A.M. we reached Kingston, and as we drove up to the city in pitchy darkness, for the first time observed that the air NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST ROINT. 1 7 was filled with the smell of burning wood. After a couple of hours' broken sleep in our clothes, we got up at five ; the smell of fire was stronger ; the air seemed full of smoke ; and, embarking on the steamer ' Corinthian/ we were told that it was the smoke from Chicago, which was burning before we left Niagara, and from the great Wisconsin forest fires. It so filled the air, though it had travelled 500 miles, that it com- pletely spoilt our views on the St. Lawrence ; and we could only get any idea of the effect of the Thousand Islands covered with brilliant foliage, when we passed close between some of them. The rocks of which they are formed struck us as some- thing quite new; and I have since learnt from Professor Dawson at Montreal that they are a spur of the Laurentian formation of Canada, through which the river has sawn its way with great difficulty, thereby forming this beautiful group of islands of every shape and size. But a worse disappointment was in store for us. After we were clear of the islands the smoke grew so thick that, on coming to the head of the Grand Sault, our captain announced that he could not see ahead, and so dared not " shoot the rapids : " but was going down a canal by the side of the river at the rate of three miles per hour. This was intolerable, as we should be about twenty-four hours getting to Montreal : so we determined to " abandon the ship," and try our luck by land. The lock at which we were stopping was but three miles from a station on the Grand Trunk Eailroad, where we found a train would arrive in two houi-s. Gathering up our bags and umbrellas — our luggage had happily been sent through by rail,— we prepared for a tramp, with the chance of losing our way in an unknown country. But a friend was at hand, in the shape of a respectable- looking man on the bank, who said he would " hitch up his waggon" and drive us to the station for a doUar with plea- sure. The offer Avas too good to be refused ; so we closed with him at once, and clambering up the steep canal bank, B 18 SOUTH BY WEST. found ourselves in front of our friend's house, where his wife and daughter, both smartly dressed, made us welcome. In five minutes our host drove round from the little farm- yard in a light spring-waggon, with a gay pair of horses that would hardly stand still to let us clamber in, before they started at a furious pace along a perfectly break- neck road, full of rocks and ruts, with snake-fences on each side, and woods of hemlock, spruce, red cedar, and pine. Our driver was very communicative, and so delighted to hear about the "old country." His grand- father came from London ; and he spoke with loving pride of England, as did every Canadian we met. They are far more loyal, alas ! than many English people ; and the Queen's birthday is a general holiday, and day of rejoicing all over the country. This man, who looked like a small farmer, and towed ships up and down the canal — a waggoner is the name of his class — said he " owned thirteen horses ; and that his daughter drove a pair all about the country," adding, by way of encouragement, " not this pair, as these are apt to run away if they see a wheelbarrow or anything strange in the road." Happily for us they saw nothing " strange " before reaching the line ; where we got out, thanking our friend — who seemed to think the obligation was entirely on his side — and walked up the track to the station in the casual way people do here, riu'ht in front of an engine with cars behind it full of gunpowder. Montreal we reached late at night ; and, owing to over- fatigue and a day's rain, we saw much less of it than we wished in our two days' visit. Then we crossed the St. Law- rence by the Victoria bridge, that marvel of engineering, two miles long; a night journey took us through Evangeline's country ; and by daylight on Saturday we were running down the Hudson Eiver Eailroad. October 14.— West Point. We arrived at this paradise this morning ; steamed across in the ferry-boat to the foot of a wooded cliff; and drove up w NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 19 a steep road to the Academy. It stands on a plateau about 100 feet above the river, on a point, as its name denotes, with views up and down the Highlands of the Hudson, wood- covered hills 3000 to 4000 feet high, while the river, which here makes a sharp bend, runs between them. The whole look of the mountains, but for the bright-coloured foliage, reminds one strongly of the best bits of Killarney. The hotel is in a perfect situation at the end of the point, looking up to Newburgh. We started forth for a stroll before dinner, and went first to a pit on the parade-ground full of IMichaelmas- daisy, growing so abundantly that it had just the same effect as a bed of blue-bells in spring at home. Then we tried a path leading down past the hotel, that looked as if it must take us to the river; as it did in course of time, after we had had a most delicious scramble over rocks and throuGjli trees, geoloirizing and botanizing to the best of our powers. We found three if not four new kinds of fern ; one corresponding evidently to our Filix-mas, and a Poly- podium so like vulgare that I could not tell them apart, save that their leaves might be a little longer and narrower than the English one. The rocks were covered with blueberry — the berries had gone — and Virginia creeper, which trails over rocks here as well as up trees. It seems to me quite a pity it should not be grown in this way in English gardens ; the effect of the bright leaves on grey rock or dark soil is beau- tiful. The maple was dazzling ; one bush we found with each leaf green in the centre, with a scarlet edge. Our path at last led down to the beach, where we sat on a huge ice- scratched rockjUnder a group of " white" — Weymouth — pines, looking up to the highlands, and feasting on the extreme beauty, which far surpasses anything we had been led to expect. We walked up to the hotel by a rather longer route, gather- ing leaves, nuts, and flowers. The arbor-vita? grows magni- ficently in the rocky cliffs ; juniper, covered with fruit, hickory, butternut, walnut, chestnut, birch, maple, white and 20 SOUTH BY WEST. purple oak, dogwood, guelder rose, all different shades of yellow, red, and purple ; here and there the long scarlet and orange leaves of the sumach, like flames of fire ; through the trees views of river and mountain; and all bathed in hot sunlight. When we got back, we soon set to work on an excellent dinner, which ended with ice-cream for dessert — a sign we were back in the neighbourhood of New York, where you seldom have dinner without it. At Mr. P.'s, in New York, we had ice in the shape of waffles, and cobs of Indian corn, the green leaves of Pistache, the pod of Vanille ; and in the streets you get a wine-glassful for a cent, paying two cents if you have the luxury of a spoon. After dinner, General R, the superintendent, kindly intro- duced us to his adjutant, who took us all over the Academy. The library is a fine room, where the students may come and read as much as they like. They have all sorts of books, from classics down to story-books. One table had a pigeon-hole devoted to each periodical magazine, British as well as American. There are a few very fine pictures of celebrated generals, more or less connected with the Academy — Washington, Monroe, Lafayette, General Totten, a noble- looking man — indeed, they are all fine heads, born to rule, such as it would be difficult to find here or in Europe now-a-days. We then went across to the gymnasium, out of which opens a room with models of guns and projectiles, in all stages of construction, — an admirable plan, as on the same board you have the bar of iron in every stage, up to the perfect barrel. Here I saw a Gatling gun for the first time, a beautiful weapon. It has, I think, ten barrels ; a tin case con- taining twenty cartridges, with regulation musket bullets 1^^ of an inch, fits into a slit on one side, and, as a crank is turned on the right by a handle, drops a cartridge from the left into the barrel, and fires instantly. Captain H. said he had fired one sixty times as fast as he could turn the handle, and found, on going up to the target, they were all in a NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 21 space as wide as his own chest would cover. We then went up into the recitation and drawing rooms, and the engineering-room, with models of forts, pontoons, and maps ; and, lastly, into a large room full of trophies and models, hung all round with the tattered colours which were through the Mexican war and the war with the South. But, of all the things in that room, the one that sent a thrill through one to one's very finger-ends was a small conical shot, not twelve inches long. It was " the shot " that opened the war, the one fired on April 12, 18G1, on Fort Sumter. Opposite it was the return shot from the North, a round ball ; and between the two a huge ball from the Northern iron-clads, thrown at Fort Sumter two years later, when it was in possession of the South. It was a strange feeling : standing there with that terrible little shot in my hand, and the Stars and Stripes waving from the flagstaff outside. In half an hour we went out to see a dress parade of the cadets. Just as we got opposite the flagstaff the gun fired, the flag dropped, and the band struck up a march. It was extremely pretty to watch the parade. Their drill was gone through like clock-work, and they doubled off the ground to perfection. There are 254 cadets at present. The dis- cipline is Spartan; the course is four years, and for two years they have no vacation ; tlien they have seventy days' leave of absence, and no more till they have done the other two years. They liave no holidays in the week but Saturday afternoon ; and then they may not go out of the Academy bounds. Their uniform is a plain light grey : but the regular soldiers' full dress is most picturesque ; light l)hie trousers, dark blue short jacket, and slouched beaver liat with a black ostrich feather at one side, looped up on the other side with a gold eagle. Sunday, Oct. I5th. — This morning General 11. called for 22 SOUTH BY WEST. US to take us to service in the cadets' chapel. The chapel itself is not remarkable for beauty, being much like the buildings at Sandhurst ; but inside, over the altar, there is a fine painting by Professor Weir, who teaches drawing here, and is considered one of the first American artists. Below the picture is a trophy of the American eagle with outspread wings, over a blue banner, with the national motto " God and our Country," under which are draped two ensigns crossed of the stars .and stripes. On the wall to the left, looking towards the altar, is a recess with glass before it, containing the flags captured in the Mexican war of '47, with two elaborately-chased guns let into the wall on each side, and the names of all the officers who fell inscribed in gold on small black tablets. On the wall too, right above where we sat with the General, are similar tablets, with the names of all the generals who served in the AVar of Independence, and have died since. Where Arnold's name should have been, a blank is left. In another recess were the five colours taken from us at Sara- toga, and some guns and mortars captured at the same time, with the old G.E. upon them. It gave one a strange feeling again : looking up at them, and hearing our first American service in the West Point Chapel. The service was very much shortened on account of the cadets ; the singing, done by seven or eight of them in a gallery over the door by the organ, was exceedingly good, slow and reverent. Dr. P., the chaplain, preached a most impressive sermon upon Chicago, with a touching allusion to the sympathy of Britain and Germany. After the ascription he repeated the whole of the doxology " Praise God from whom all blessings flow," and the whole congregation sung it slowly and solemnly to the dear " Old Hundredth." It was perfectly overpower- ing to our English ears. Then followed a short prayer NEW YOKK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 23 for the army, navy, and the cadets, "that they might be made good men and good soldiers ; " then the blessing, and we left the church. It was a very beautiful service : — so much reverence on the part of the young men, notwith- standing their different creeds. General E. took us on the way to the hotel past Kos- ciusko's monument on the top of the old fortifications. There never was any fighting, he said, on this actual point : but at the old Fort Clinton, just below. At Constitution Island, just above, the army was disbanded after the War of Independence was over; and on the grass, at the end of the parade-ground, lie the old chains which were put across the river to prevent the Britishers getting up. After dinner we walked to Fort Putnam on the hill above the point with Dr. F. The road winds up through rocky woods, and from the Fort we got a splendid view up and down the river, the Point and its buildings lying mapped out below. I caught a beautiful little tree toad, bright buff colour, with suckers on its feet ; and near the top the Katydids — grasshoppers — were perfectly deafening. "We came down just in time to hear Yankee Doodle played at the cadet Sunday parade, which we watched from the piazza of General A.'s house. He was in command of the Colorado district, which I hoped soon to visit. Here w^e met Professor "Weir, the painter, who told me of a new way of preserving leaves and ferns, by dipping them in linseed oil, and pressing them between newspapers. About 7.30 General and Mrs. A. called ; evening visits being the custom in America. After they were gone we took a stroll. It was like a summer's evening, deHciously hot. The air was full of the sound of grasshoppers and frogs, and also, alas ! of mosquitos, who are biting voraciously. This is our third Sunday in America. Each has been quite perfect in its own way ; the first coming into New York harbour, the next at Niagara, and to-day at "West Point. CHAPTEE IT. FKOM EAST TO WEST. Dowii tlie Hudson — Trains in tlie streets — Parlour cars — Baltimore- —An Ame- rican country-house— The Convention of 1871 — Start for the West — St. Louis — "Arctic Soda" — Mustang fever— Kansas city — The Plains — Prairie dogs — An old "rattler" — Buffalos — United States forts — A railroad feat — Denver — The Rocky Mountains — The pioneer narrow-gauge railroad — Pike's Peak. On Monday, 1 Gth, we set off by train down the east bank of the Hudson, past pretty towns and villages of white houses, with a singular collection of names, — Indian, Dutch, Classic, and English, all mixed up together. For instance, you have Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Tivoli, Caatskill, Athens, Stock- port, and Troy, all within some hundred miles of each other. Close to New York we got a fine view of the Palisades, a curious line of basaltic cliffs 300 feet high, running for some miles alonc,^ the western bank of the river. We came slowly into the city, down one of the streets, for three or four miles, a most alarming proceeding to our European nerves, as the street was crowded with children, horses, and carriages. Every moment we expected some one or some thing would get under the car wheels. But as the State affords no protections against accidents, people learn to pro- tect themselves ; and while the great train of cars steamed slowly on, the bell on the engine tolling funereally, the passers-by cleared off the track just in time to escape de- struction. The apparent carelessness of human life struck us much when we first arrived in America. The Dean asked the conductor of our car, as we crossed FROM EAST TO WEST. 25 the bridge at Portage, whether people were not forbidden to stand on the platform. " Yes," he said, " there is a notice to that effect : but every- one does it at his own risk, and if he is killed there is no one but himself to blame." An American friend was greatly diverted at my horror as we ran into Baltimore, but confessed that he had once been thoroughly frightened. He was on an engine going over a flat stretch of road ; and as it seemed perfectly clear for two or three miles, the engineer started full speed to show him the pace of the engine. Suddenly, as they rushed along, in the middle of their racing ground, they saw close before them a tiny child, of a year or so, sitting playing on the rails. They whistled and hooted and tried to stop. All in vain ; the child did not move. But just as they thought in agony that in a moment more nothing could save it, a woman stepped leisurely from a cottage by the side of the track, picked the little thing up with one hand, and stepped back as the engine rushed past. After breakfast in New York we started for Baltimore in a parlour car. The Bishop of New York and his daughter and several gentlemen, all on their way, like ourselves, to the Convention, jomed us at the depot; so \ve were a party large enough to secure the whole central compartment of the car for ourselves. It was about 14 feet by 8, and 11 feet high, with five windows, and arm-chair seats for twelve, carpets, footstools, and bright lamps, as well as a tap of iced water. This really is the perfection of travelling. "\Ve walked about and talked to our friends, and had visitors in to see us from the other cars, all the afternoon ; so that it did not matter to us tliat the New Jersey country through Avhich we ran was flat and uninteresting, except for its extreme richness. Our chief external excitements were crossing the Earitan, Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna rivers, which are quite magnificent ; and also in passing Phihidelphia we 26 SOUTH BY WEST. got a fine view from the cars of the city, running past it through a part of Fairmount Park, one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the largest public parks in the world, being over 1600 acres, with the Schuylkill river flowing through. At 8 P.M. we reached Baltimore, where our kind recep- tion- certainly went far to prove the truth of the popular belief, that it is the most hospitable city in the Union. And here I met Mr. S., who most kindly offered to be my escort to the West to join my brother next week, if I can find no one going sooner. Thursday, l9tJi. — Mrs. H. and I took a little walk this afternoon to a railroad tunnel they are making near here, which is being lined with blocks of white marble. There were blocks of a finer kind, such as is used for building, in a yard close by. All the basements of the houses are built of this lovely marble, quarried about eight miles off, the upper floors being usually of red brick. At four o'clock we went to dinner at Mr. D.'s, in Madison Avenue, where the Bishop of Minnesota was staying. He has given his whole life to the Sioux Indians, and has an extraordinary influence over them, which would not surprise any one who had the honour of knowing him. Besides him we met Bishop Atkinson, and the Bishops of Ehode Island and Connecticut. The latter took me in to dinner, and was most agreeable. He told me much that was interesting about his diocese, where he said one could still find in the country districts that simple primitive New-England life one reads of in Hitherto and the Gayworthies, and which is becoming rarer every year, under the growth of large towns. October 20. — Miss P. carried us off to luncheon at her father's country-house, five miles from town. We have had a lovely drive past pretty country places, with distant views of a rolling wooded country. Mr. P.'s house was one's ideal of an American country place. A long road through purple oaks and yellow hie- FROM EAST TO WEST. 27 kory led up to a rather low white house, its broad piazzas covered with luxurious rocking-chairs ; and fragrant beds of roses either side of the steps. We went for a walk through the pleasure-ground, and passing a field of corn (maize) had the delight of picking off a large cob, as the corn was not yet cut. Luncheon was ready on our return ; such a pretty meal: "Irish" and sweet potatoes, delicious rolls, thinnest wafer-biscuits; and in the middle of luncheon little old-fashioned glasses of "Confederate punch" were handed round by the negro man and maid. After tea and coffee, which are drunk at table, we sat in the piazza ; and then took our leave, laden with boughs of scarlet maple, cobs of corn, Osage oranges we had picked up in the road, a glorious bunch of rosebuds and mignonette, promises of a collection of varnished leaves, and the kindest wishes for our speedy return. During our stay we drove through the park just beyond the city. It had originally been a gentleman's place, and was given by him to Baltimore. The trees are beautiful; the winding roads up and down hill, with deer coming to stare at the carriage, the brilliant foliage, bright sun, and clear air, give one quite a new idea of a city park. 23d. — We went ofi" to the city early, to the Convention at Emanuel Church, which of course the Dean attended every day ; and we listened for some time to the debates, hearing some very good and some very bad speaking. The General Convention meets every third year, the larger cities of the Union being taken in rotation. It met once before at Baltimore in 1808, when a small parlour was large enough for the Upper House, consisting of two Bishops out of a total number of six. In 1871 there met 50 Bishops in the Upper House ; while in the Lower House were the Delegates, lay and clerical, four and four from each diocese, making a total, theoretically, of 400, practically of about 300. The Upper House, after the opening service, retired to 28 SOUTH BY WEST. a smaller church close by, where they met with closed doors. The Lower House continued their meetings at Emanuel, a very large church. The platform of the apsidal chancel was turned into a place of business, with a chair and table in the centre for the President, and others for the secretaries and reporters. The floor of the church was systematically mapped out, according to the dioceses. The name of each State or territory was printed in large letters on a standard, above the respective pews ; so that one had the whole of the United States, from Massachusetts to California, from Ala- bama to Minnesota, brought before one in that little space. 'iith. — Went into the Convention again, and arranged everything with my kind escort to the West ; finished my packing ; telegraphed to my brother in Colorado to say when I should arrive at Denver ; and we then went to dine at the Bishop of Maryland's. We met there Bishop Wilmer of Alabama, and his cousin Bishop Wilmer of Louisiana, the Bishop of Albany, and various other people. Many were the questions I had to answer about my journey in prospect ; and I was soon so tired as to be glad, in spite of all the pleasant acquaintances I made, and friends I met, to go quietly home to rest with Mrs. B., our kind hostess, till it was time to start. Mr. B. drove me down to the depot about 10 p.m., and put me into Mr. S.'s hands ; and in pitchy darkness and lashing rain I bade farewell to Baltimore, its charming inhabitants, and my dear English friends, and was fairly launched on my way to the unknown West. My berth was extremely comfortable ; and I had a good night, notwithstanding many stoppages and bumping to and fro, little dreaming of what an escape we had. In the morning it leaked out that during the night a train in front of us had broken down, and been unable to signal us ; and had it not been for the powerful air-brakes they use on this line, we should have run rinht into it, as we were onlv FROM EAST TO WEST. 29 able to stop just as we got up to it ; while to add to the possible horror, another train was close behind us. In the morning of Wednesday we were woke up at five by the conductor ; when we discovered to our surprise that during the night we had climbed up about 2000 feet, and were now at Altoona, near the top of the Alleghanies. It was a misty morning, so that the views were rather f*- '*' -^/ijt Horse-shoe Bend, Alleghany Mountains. spoilt : but over the summit we caught glimpses through the mist and clouds of grand scenery as we wound round the mountain sides. On either hand were pine forests, some black from recent fires, others with a brilliant under- growth of sumach and dogwood. About eleven miles below Cressou Springs on the sum- mit of the mountains, having run all that distance without steam, we came to the Horse-shoe Bend, where the curv^e is 30 SOUTH BY WEST. SO great that, looking out of the windows of the last car, you see the three engines of the train running parallel with you, only the other way. The rain cleared off, and the scenery became more and more distinct as we came down the side of the mountain trout-streams, their banks shaded with tall hemlocks, and a thick undergrowth of rhododendrons and ferns among the rocks. At a thriving-looking city, called Johnston, we came to the first coal-mines, and they increased in number as we went on. They are mainly adits— galleries run into the hill-side horizontally. From Johnston we followed the Connemaugh river which joins the Alleghany above Pitts- burgh, through the Packsaddle Gap, reaching the Wolver- hampton of the States about 1 1 a.m. Here we changed cars ; and with great difficulty found places in the sleeping- cars of the New York train we joined, as it was crowded with passengers. As soon as we were clear of the smoke and dirt of Pittsburg, the journey till dark was quite lovely. We crossed the Ohio, where we first saw stern-wheel steamers for shallow water; then ran along a stream for miles and miles, following its windings till the sharp curves made me feel almost giddy. So the night came on : and on the 26 th we woke up to find ourselves among the rolling hills and plains of Indiana ; and had breakfast at Terre Haut, of coffee, roast quail, and corn bread. The country grew more level as we neared St. Louis ; and about ten miles from the city we passed some bluffs standing out of a dead flat of alluvial ground running away to the river, which are supposed to mark what have been at one time the old banks of the river itself. In one part of this flat rose half-a-dozen mounds, believed to be Indian burying-places of immense antiquity. At last we reached the river, and all turned out of the cars into six huge omnibuses, with four magnificent horses to each, and FROM EAST TO WEST. 31 drove down to a ferry-boat, where they were all drawn up side by side, the horses standing like statues ; and so we crossed the INIississippi. Like every European, I was prepared to be greatly impressed by my first view of the " Father of Waters : " but I must confess to a feeling of blank disappointment. I saw nothing but a wide river — but not as wide as I expected, of a horrible pea-soup coloui-, covered with steamers ; a huge unfinished bridge ; and the city, on the other side, looking rather ding}% with its broad wharves or " levees," and long rows of tall ware- houses. Landing on the further bank, an incident occurred which gave one a glimpse of the rough and ready fashion of the West. The gangway of the ferry-boat was a good foot and a half below the levee or pier on which we had to land ; and one naturally expected that they would either raise it in some way, or put down something to smooth the joining. No such thing. The horses were set off full trot ; and they dragged us up with a bump that would have broken any ordinary carriage to pieces, sending the passengers all flying in a mass against each other in the middle of the omnibus. This over, we went at a great pace up the muddy streets, away from the river to the hotel, where we stopped for a few hours. As the parlour was very hot, and full of crying children, we escaped and took a short stroll about the city. We went first to a German bakery, and then refreshed our- selves with an "Arctic Soda," flavoured with strawberry, 10 cents. These soda fountains are found at every "Drug- store" in the large cities, with taps of different flavours, and generally one marked " Tonic," which produces something considerably stronger than the innocent raspberry and pine- apple syrups. Chemists are not allowed to sell spirituous liquors, except for medicinal purposes ; and the police are supposed to search their stores at intervals. But wlien the officer comes in and asks if they liave any spirits on the 32 SOUTH BY WEST. premises, he is occasionally silenced by a glass of " Tonic and Soda," and leaves the chemist alone till the next time he feels thirsty. After laying in a small stock of provisions against our journey across the plains, we made our way down to the Missouri Pacific depot; and were soon steaming away towards the setting sun. Now began the really novel part of the journey. I was west of the Mississippi ; on that enchanted ground to which, if you have once set foot upon it, you must sooner or later return. " Mustang fever" is the name which Westerners give to that wholly inexplicable feeling, which is said to allure people back into the wilderness, almost against their own wills, when they try to cure themselves of their roving tastes, by living in the cities of the Eastern States, or even in Europe. Ere I w^ent thither it was easy enough for me in my ignorance to laugh at this theory : but now I am not quite sure that I have wholly escaped the contagion. Certainly the journey of the first evening, as we left St. Louis, was most attractive. The moon was so bright that I was tempted to sit up looking at the country till nearly every one else had gone to bed. We ran for some hours alongside of the Mis- souri river, the trees on its banks reflected clear and sharp in the smooth water, reminding one of some charming old steel engraving. Then we crossed the river, and ran for some way with it on our right, and with broken ground on the left, in some parts cultivated, in others forest, with deep gullies worn by water through the light sandy soil. At last I packed up for the night ; and woke about six on the 27th to find the train at a stand- still at some bit of a place, a perfect specimen of a mushroom town. It con- sisted of a few wooden houses, a saloon, a boot-store, a dry goods store, and directly opposite our car a wooden shanty, with a plate on the door, stating that this was " Dr. Miller's Office ;" while above the door the public were informed, in FROM EAST TO WEST. 33 large letters, that H. C. IMiller sold " drugs, medicines, paints, oils, glass, putty, books, stationery, and perfumery." The ground was white with hoar-frost ; and the sun rose crimson over an open country rolling away to the blue distance. With joy I thought, — " Only one night more, and we shall be at Denver : " Ijut then, to our dis- may, came the news that by some unlucky chance we had started in the wrong train, and must wait fourteen hours at Kansas City to catch the through train. My heart sank ; for of all places to wait at, a more unpleasant one on a hot day than Kansas City, which we reached about 8 a.^l, can hardly be found. But in a new country one has to put up with many little annoyances; so we determined to make the best of a bad matter, and drove up to the Lindell Hotel. After breakfast in a very hot room, we explored the town a little. It stands on a sandy bluff over the liver ; a strange situation to choose, as the foundations for all the houses on the slope of the hill have to be cut out of the c 34 SOUTH BY WEST. sand at gTeat expense and inconvenience. There were two or three good streets, partly finished ; several hotels ; and scattered stores, some wooden and some brick, standing alone or in small clusters ; little wooden saloons, with glass fronts, and various titles in English or German — " Colorado Saloon," " Denver Saloon," " Deutsches Gasthaus," etc. ; and candy or fruit stores at the corners of what are in the future to be streets, but are now only masses of mud and stone with a boarded side-walk. One of these small booths bore a device painted in the very roughest style of art,— a large shoe, a green and red fly, and the word " syrup " written below them. After some reflection I found that it signified that " Shoofly syrups " were to be procured from the owner. Higher up the hill there are churches, schools, and many good residences : but the day was so hot that I put off my further explorations to some future visit. Along the river below the city are lines of warehouses, and one of the huge elevators for raising and shipping loads of grain. Of this curious process an excellent description may be found in Mr. Macrae's account of Chicago in The Americans at Home. After dinner we went down to the depot of the Kansas Pacific Eailroad, to secure our tickets and places in the 8leeping-cars. The heat was intense, the road being cut through sandbanks, which reflected the blazing sun over- head. The day wore away slowly, and I was rejoiced to hear about 10.30 p.m. the rattle of the four-horse omnibus outside the hotel, to take us to the train, and decided that I had , seen enough of Kansas City to satisfy me : though I doubt not, from what I know since, 1 should have liked it better had it been less hot, and I less impatient to get on. 28th. — At daybreak I found we were on the prames in good earnest ; and in a couple of hours we stopped at Salina for breakfast. This was the point from which, in ] 8G7, the Trans-Conti- nental Survey started, described by Dr. W. A. Bell, in his New Tracks in North America. It was then a place of im- FROM EAST TO WEST. 35 portance as the temporary terminus of a line, where all goods were transferred from the freight cars to the ox trains, destined to carry them through the dangers of a hostile Indian country to Denver and the towns of New Mexico. Directly we left Salina we came upon the regular plains ; short grass in tufts on a sandy soil, and long stretches of brown, rolling away wave upon w^ave, like some great ocean turned into land in the midst of a heavy ground swell after a storm. Here and there was a prairie ranche or farm, with Prairie Ranche near Salina. its corral for horses and cattle, and the great heap of grass which represents the civilized haystack of eastern or Euro- pean farms. It is a lonely life, that of a rancheman. Settled out upon the prairie with his herd of horses and cattle, often with- out another house within a dozen or twenty miles, the only human beings whom he sees are the passengers on the daily train, or some passing emigrants, wearily crawling over the plains with their white-covered ox-waggons ; except when he drives his beasts for sale to the nearest market. In the winter the snowstorms are terrible ; and in December 36 SOUTH BY WEST. 1871, hardly more than a month after I crossed the plains, twenty-seven men were brought in on the Kansas Pacific Eailroad frozen to death while tending their herds. One man, a large cattle-owner, was found dead thirty yards from his own door, with $5000 in his pockets; having evidently wan- dered round and round, bewildered in the blinding snow, and dropped at last from exhaustion, not knowing he was close to his home. But that people can live out on the borders of civihsa- tion and prosper is a fact proved by the very existence of such States as Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, etc. Fifty — cer- tainly seventy — years ago they were quite as wild and much more inaccessible than Kansas and the Territories are now. I could not take my eyes off the country, so strange and new it seemed ; and suddenly my attention was attracted by a small brown post, about a foot high, planted in a sandy ring, with a little round pit in the centre. I looked again-, thinking it a strange place for a post, and there was another, and a dozen more. All at once one of the posts threw itself fiat down and disappeared into the pit, displaying four short legs and a twinkling tail ; and I saw it was a prairie dog {Arctomys Ludovicianus). We were going through a dog-town, and there they sat by scores on their hind legs praying at the train and rubbing their noses with their fore- paws. They are the quaintest little animals ; and make charming pets, as they are very easily tamed. They are very falsely called dogs, their only claim to such a name being their cry, a short bark : but are really more nearly allied to marmots. They are usually supposed to live in the strange company of a small owl and a rattlesnake ; and I have heard people assert that in each hole these three most un- congenial friends are found. This fact, how^ever, I have been unable to prove satisfactorily, never having myself seen either snake or bird with the prairie dogs. Those who have had much experience in the West, tell me they have often FROM EAST TO WEST. 37 seen the rattlesnake come out of holes in a clog-town, but have never seen any prairie dogs come out of the same hole. They are very difficult to catch, as their movements are very rapid. The best plan is to pour M^ater down the hole, and so drown out the poor little beast, who comes up choking and spluttering, and is then easily made prisoner. The peculiar shake they give their short tails as they bolt down the hole has given rise to a Western phrase, denoting great rapidity, — " in the twinkling of a tail." Prairie Dogs. My brother M. had a narrow escape one day in drowning out prairie dogs. His party was surveying in New Mexico, near Maxwells; and being camped near a dog-town they determined, one stormy evening, having nothing better to do, to catch prairie dogs. So accordingly, taking off shoes and stockings, and armed with tin pan, pail, and shovel, four of them sallied forth. Turning a stream of water from the neighbouring irrigating ditch over the town, they waited over the holes with their hands down all ready to catch the 38 SOUTH BY WEST. unlucky little half-drowned dogs as they came up sneezing and snorting. Two or three were caught and deposited in the tin pan with the lid down ; but one large hole tempted them to further endeavours ; and the water being properly directed down it, M, was all readiness to grip his prey, when suddenly, instead of the furry head of a dog, appeared the fiat skull and glittering eyes of an old rattle- snake. In an instant the valiant hunters were scattered, with the old rattler after them ; and for some minutes a lively game was carried on, the rattler making darts at their bare shins as the four heroes hurled bucket, shovel, and volleys of stones against him. At last one lucky shot disabled him, and after he was despatched they "concluded" not to hunt prairie dogs any more that day. Near Brookville, a little station some way beyond Salina, we passed through a range of the bluffs, which one hears of so often as a feature of prairie scenery. They seem to be entirely water-worn. A smooth grass-covered slope rises up in a gentle wave from the prairie, and ends abruptly in a steep rocky face. Sometimes, nearer the foot of the Eocky Mountains, a few pines or scrub oaks find shelter on the rocky side of the bluff : but out here on the plains no twig was to be seen. Among these bluffs large herds of horses and cattle were grazing ; and we passed an occasional ranche till about mid-day, when every sign of civilisation was left behind, and we reached the edge of the buffalo plains. Now began great excitement in our car, which was the last on the train ; and some of us went out on the back platform to watch for the appearance of the buffalo. This is not a very safe proceeding, as there is only a rail just across the end, and the sides are open. Still there is some- thing pleasantly exciting in sitting there as one whirls along the single track, over dry water-courses on fragile-looking trestle bridges ; or between sandy banks, with high snow- FROM EAST TO WEST. 39 fences to keep the snow in the winter from drifting and filling np the cuts ; or over a wide smooth expanse, dis- figured in many places by the long tongues of black running out on either side the track, where a spark from the " smoke stack," or chimney, has set the short buffalo grass on fire during the droughts of summer. In some places these fires had run for two or three miles over the country ; and it was very likely owing to their pasture being so burnt that for a long while we saw no buffaloes alive, though endless skele- tons lay on each side of the track, and we passed several dead bodies in various stages of decomposition. A most cruel and foolish fashion prevails on these trains, of shooting the poor animals from the cars as they go along, for the mere pleasure of killing. Of course, many more are missed than hit : but when they are wounded there is no means of stopping to despatch them ; so they die in misery along the line. However, for some time it seemed as if the passengers on our train were not to have any opportunity of showing their skill ; for we reached Fort Parker without seeing a buffalo. But suddenly I caught sight of two about a mile to the north. Then the excitement among the passengers redoubled; in half-au-hour we heard the crack of a pistol from the front of the train ; and as it sped on we came in. sight of three huge beasts, not more than 200 yards from the track. They had been startled by the pistol-shot, and were galloping along in their clumsy way, parallel with the cars, as they always do when frightened. One wondered how such awk- ward-looking beasts could keep up such a pace ; for long after we had passed them they kept in sight, still galloping after us, with their heads down. They are most hideous animals, with heavy heads and shaggy shoulders quite out of proportion with their small hind-quarters. The buffalo, or more properly bison, ranges over the great plains of Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska, 40 SOUTH BY WEST. iu enormous herds ; sometimes, in the summer, getting as fai north as the 50th parallel. They seem very little disturbed at the invasion of their tenitories by railroads ; and take kindly to the telegraph posts, evidently con- sidering them put up for their special convenience to rub against. This, as may be imagined, does not improve the insulation of the wires ; and so many posts were rubbed down at first, along the Kansas Pacific Eailroad, that orders were given to stick the new ones full of large and sharp nails. This, however, only made matters worse, as the buffalos found the nails most charming combs for their shaggy coats, and the posts were knocked down more fre- quently than ever. So now the authorities have been obliged to give up in despair, and let the line take its chance. At Ellice we stopped for dinner : but preferring our own provisions to a nasty meal of tough and almost uncooked buffalo-steak, I took advantage of the train waiting to get a little walk on the prairie, coming back into the cars with a handful of common weeds which were all new to me. Most of them were in seed, as the season for flowers, alas ! was over; and some of my fellow-travellers were not a little puzzled at any one taking an interest in such rubbish. Then away we went again over endless plains, through blinding sun and dust : when, to my amazement, I saw here and there, to the south, beautiful lakes and rivers, with trees along their banks reflected in the clear water. I had been assured that there was hardly any water, and not a single tree all across these plains ; however, here they were most certainly, and I called my friends to look too. But as we approached one of the lakes it gradually faded away into the air, and we found it was nothing but mirage. The utter desolation and monotony was only varied here and there by a herd of prong-horn antelopes (Dicranoceros furdfera), bounding away from the train, or a wolf skulking FROM EAST TO WEST. 41 round some skeleton, or a great owl sitting blinking in the sun, or a group of soldiers or hunters drying buffalo meat, and curinw hides at some " ducf out " station. These dug-outs were more used a year or two ago than they are now, as the Indians are quieter : but w^hen the Kansas Pacific was building, and in the earlier days of stage- driving across the plains, they were absolutely necessary. The following description of Pond Creek Station, from New Tracks in North America, will give a good idea of a fortified stage station : — " Standing side by side, and built of wood and stone, are the stables and the ranche in which the drivers and the ostlers live. Behind is a coralle or vard, divided off from the plain by a wall of stones. In this is kept the hay, etc., belonging to the station. A little subterranean passage, about five feet by three, leads from the stables to the house. Another one leads from the stables to a pit dug in the ground, about ten yards distant. This pit is about eight to ten feet square, is roofed with stone supported on wood, and just on a level with the ground, port-holes open on all sides. The roof is raised but little above the general level of the ground. Another narrow subterranean passage leads from the house to a second pit commanding the other side of the station, while a third passage from the coralle to a larger pit com- mands the rear. In both houses many repeating Spencer and Henry breech-loading rifles — the former carrying seven and the latter eighteen charges — lie loaded ready to hand ; while over each little fort a black flag waves, which the red men know well means 'no quarter' for them. When attacked the men creep into these pits, and thus protected, keep up a tremendous fire through the port-holes. Two or three men, with a couple of breech-loaders each, are a match for almost any number of assailants. I cannot say how many times these little forts have been used since tlieir construc- tion, but during the three weeks (1867) we were in the neighbourhood, the station was attacked twice. The Indians 42 SOUTH BY WEST. are beginning to understand these covered rifle-pits, and the more they know of them the more careful they are to keep at a respectful distance." About 4.30 we came across the buffalos again. This time they quite fulfilled all one's expectations as to number ; and till sunset we were never out of sight of them. In one place we saw 200 or more a mile away, and in another the plain was literally alive with a vast herd, three or four miles off, which I was told must have numbered some thousands. The groups near the track varied from four to twenty, of all sizes ; and once I saw a little calf, with its father and mother galloping on either side of it, to protect it from the black smoking monster that disturbed their evening's grazing. As the sun set in crimson glory over the plains, we reached the station for Fort Wallace. The depot there was full of United States officers, who had driven in to get the mail and newspapers. The Fort was too far off for us to see it in the twilight : but those we had passed in the day had given one a good idea of these little centres of civilisation, with their neat white quarters, and the welcome Stars and. Stripes waving from the tall flagstaff, as guarantees of order and protection out on the desolate prairie. I could hardly divest my mind of the idea that we should be attacked by Eedskins ; for the name of Fort Wallace is associated with such horrors : but we met with no worse a misfortune than a very bad supper; and sped on towards Denver. During the night we passed Kit Carson, the scene of a terrible Indian raid in May 1870; and Elko, from whence, in the day-time, Pike's Peak may be seen, 100 miles away south-west. Kit Carson is the point from which began one of the most marvellous feats in the annals of railroading. 150 miles of road were wanting to complete the Kansas Pacific Eailroad to Denver ; and these 150 were graded and built in a hundred days. The last day twenty miles remained un- FROM EAST TO WEST. 43 finished. Double gangs were put on, working towards each other from both ends ; and before evening they met and put in the last rivet, one laying 8^, the other 1 1 J miles. On the morning of the 30th I was up before daylight. As the sun rose, ahead of us, pink in the dawn appeared range on range of hills ; and I knew they were the Eocky Mountains at last. At 6 A.M. we steamed into Denver, where my brother M. was waiting for me on the platform. I fear my adieux to my travelling companions were sadly wanting in length and courtesy : and I have no very distinct recollection of how we street in Denver. got up to the hotel. But ere long I recovered my lost wits as we sat down to a seven o'clock breakfast of delicious mountain trout, eggs, and good coffee, to which I did ample justice, as the food along the Kansas Pacific had not been very tempting, and Mons. Charpiot's cooking was not to be despised. Denver stands at the junction of the South Platte and Cherry Creek, about fifteen miles from the mountains. It is certainly one of the most successful of all the new cities of the West, and is growing at a perfectly prodigious rate. The streets are wide, and laid out in straight lines, crossing at 44 SOUTH BY WEST. right angles. There are very few " mean" or badly-built houses, such as one is too apt to see in a new western town ; most of the business blocks are of brick or stone, and in the resi- dence streets pretty wooden villas stand each in their own little garden plot. Cottonwood (white poplar) trees are planted along most of the streets, and seem to thrive. The stores are excellent ; and if one does not object to paying four times as much as one would in England, all the neces- saries, and most of the luxuries, of life can be easily pro- cured in Denver. Later in the day, M. and I went to dine with Colonel and Mrs. G. ; and after dinner they took us for a drive round the city. The day was bitterly cold and grey, with shattering of sleet from time to time ; and I was thankful to put on seal- skm and cloud and fur gloves — ^rather a contrast to our sufferings from heat on the plains only the day before. We drove across the Platte to a sandy hill, which is to be in future the public park of Denver. It is called the Boulevard, and has a fine ridinnr and driviuGf road laid out, with four rows of Cottonwood trees and irrigating ditches. This, how- ever, must be seen, like many other things in the West, by the eye of faith ; as at present the road is a rough, sandy track, and when the TTte Indians visit Denver they make the park their camping ground. We got a very good idea of the city from the Boulevard. It looks just if it had been dropped out of the clouds accidentally, by some one who meant to carry it further on, but got tired, and let it fall anywhere. To the east one sees nothing but brown barren plain, away and away. But on the west the view is superb. The prairie rolls up in great brown waves to the foot-hills of the Eocky Mountains, which bound the western horizon as far as eye can see, north and south. At first I confess I was disap- pointed as to their height ; but I soon discovered to my con- solation that I had not seen the real mountains. For just before sunset the clouds cleared off; and there, behind the FROM EAST TO WEST. 45 foot-hills which lay in deep purple shadow, gleamed the white peaks of the Snowy Eange, illumined by golden glory ; and down South, Pike's Peak rose clear pink and wliite, seventy-five miles away. Monday, Xovember 1. — At 7.30 a.m. we were down at the depot of the Denver and Ptio Grande Piailroad, and found a quantity of new acquaintances, friends of M., going down with us, — among others, Mr. N., the chief engineer to the Fountain Colony, one of the very kindest of our many kind friends. They were all, of course, full of talk about the railroad, the first division of which, as far as Colorado Springs, had only been open a week; and I was soon imbued with a proper enthusiasm at its complete success. It is the pioneer narrow gauge (three feet wide) railroad of the States^ as well as the pioneer north and south road. For some miles out of Denver the road follows the course of the Platte, till it turns to the mountains, and is lost to sight in the dark abysses of the Platte Canon. Then, after leaving the Platte, the line follows one of its tributaries, Plum Creek, for about thirty miles, bordered with willows and cotton woods. Here I may as well explain tliat a " creek" in the West means any small river or stream. The land on either side of Plum Creek is taken up by settlers, and fenced off into ranches for sheep, cattle, and agriculture. Every mile took us nearer to the mountains ; and at last the train began climbing up the Divide, or watershed of the Platte and Arkansas. Here we first got among the Pineries, a great source of wealth all along the Piocky jNIountains ; and at Larkspur passed a large steam saw-mill in full work. Up the Eight Mile, a little creek which runs north from the top of the Divide, — where we passed an old man washing for gold, — the grade was very steep, seventy- five feet to the mile ; and in a few moments we stopped at the summit, beside the lake, which from its north end feeds the Platte, and from its 46 SOUTH BY WEST. soutli the Arkansas. It was the highest point of ground I had ever been on, being 7554 feet above the sea ; only second in height as a railway pass to Sherman, on the Union Pacific Eailroad, which is 8370 feet. We got out of the car while some telegrams were de- spatched, and walked about a little to warm ourselves ; for the place bore out its reputation of being the coldest spot in Colorado ; and then began the run down to the Springs, about thirty miles. The road now was picturesque in the extreme, winding along the banks of the Monument Creek, 1 past fantastic sandstone rocks, water-worn into pillars and arches, and great castles with battlemented walls, on the top of every hill. Through the pine trees we now and then caught glimpses of the mountains, pink and purple, towering up ridge over ridge, till, about Husteds, the whole panorama south of the Divide lay stretched beneath us. To the right the foot-hills rose, crowned by the grand snow-covered head of Pike's Peak, 14,336 feet high. To the south, the horizon was bounded by Cheyenne Mountain, standing right out into the plain ; and from it to the east- ward stretched the boundless prairie. CHAPTER III. LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. A series of surprises— The young town — Our shanty and its fittings — How we live — Glen Eyrie — Tea in a loft — Bird-cage making— A " scare" — House- warming — The Soda Springs— A trapper— Walk to Mount Washington — School — Move to our new quarters— Staging and stage-drivers. " CoLOBADO Springs, Colorado, Nov. 1S71. " Dear * * * — Here I am ' located ' at last, and the best thing I can do is to describe our arrival here, and my first impressions, which, to say the least, are novel. " We pulled up at a log cabin by the side of the track, and from the door- way came a voice, saying, ' Dinner 's on table.' Out we all got, and I thought — Surely we can't be going to dine in this place : but M. took me round to the back door and into the parlour, where he told me to wait while he saw to the luggage. In a few minutes he returned, and took me into the dining-room, where I found,, to my amazement, two large tables on one side, and four small on the other, with clean linen, smart waiters, and a first-rate dinner ; far better than any we had had on the Kansas Pacific. I was in a state of complete bewilderment : but hunger soon got the better of surprise, and we were doing ample justice to oyster-soup and roast antelope when in came General and Mrs. P. It was pleasant to find well- known faces among so many new ones. " You may imagine Colorado Springs, as I did, to be a sequestered valley, with bubbling fountains, green grass, and shady trees : but not a bit of it. Picture to yourself a 48 SOUTH BY WEST. level elevated plateau of greenish-brown, without a single tree or plant larger than a Spanish bayonet (Yucca) two feet high, sloping down about a quarter of a mile to the railroad track and Monument Creek (the Soda Springs being six miles off), and you have a pretty good idea of the town-site as it appears in November 1871. " The streets and blocks are only marked out by a furrow turned with the plough, and indicated faintly by a wooden house, finished, or in process of building, here and there, scattered over half a mile of prairie. About twelve houses and shanties are inhabited, most of them being unfinished, or run up for temporary occupation ; and there are several tents dotted about also. " On the corner of Tejon and Huerfano Streets stands the office of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, a small wooden building of three rooms, in which all the colony work is done till the new office is finished. It is used, besides, as post-office, doctor's shop, and general lounge for the whole town. My house stands next to it; a wooden shanty, 16 feet by 12, with a door in front, and a small window on each side— they are glass, though they do not open. It is lined with brown paper, so it is perfectly wind-proof, and really quite comfortable, though it was ordered on Thursday and finished on Saturday. M. has now put his tent up over the front of the shanty, with a rough board floor, and it serves for our sitting-room by day and his bedroom at night ; so we can warm both tent and room with a stove in the former : but on IMonday we forgot to bring the stove down from Denver, and I had to do without it as well as I could. In one corner of the shanty we put my little camp-bed ; my trunks in the others. Our furni- ture had not arrived from Denver; so M. found an old wooden stool, which had been used for mixing paints upon, tacked a bit of coloured calico over it, deposited upon it a tin basin, and there was an impromptu washhand- stand. A LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 49 few feet of half-inch board were soon converted into corner shelves, and, with warm yellow and red California blankets on my bed, and a buffalo-robe on the floor, my room looked quite habitable. In the tent we have put the stove, a couple of wooden kitchen chairs from the office, and a deal table ; M.'s bed makes a comfortable sofa by day; and over the door into the shanty hang two bright curtains Dr. B. has brought me from Denver, as a contribution to our housekeeping. In the corner by the stove stands a pail of water ; and over it hangs an invaluable tin dipper, which serves for saucepan, glass, jug, cup, and every use imaginable. Our Shanty. t " Monday night, after paying one or two visits, we went to the office and had a game of whist with Mr. K and Dr. G., who has been burnt out of Chicago and come down here to settle. Then I locked myself into my strange new abode, with M.'s revolver as protection against imaginary foes ; and by dint of buffalo-robes and blankets, and heaps of flannel, managed to keep tolerably warm, though my breath con- densed on the sheets, and when I got up the bucket had a quarter of an inch of ice on it. " Tliis is how our day goes, now that we have got D 50 SOUTH BY WEST. everything ' fixed ' properly : — Get up at 7 A.M. in the cold frosty air. M. comes in and lights the stove ; heats some water ; and by eight we are ready for a walk of nearly half a mile down to the restaurant (the log cabin), with a fine appetite for breakfast. The food is good and plentiful. Beefsteak or venison; biscuit — as they call hot rolls out here ; hot buckwheat cakes eaten with butter and molasses or honey ; and the whole washed down with bad tea or ex- cellent rich milk. Then if there is time we take a stroll and look for seeds and stones. There are all sorts of stones and crystals to be found here ; and I hear of amethysts up the Monument. On Monday Dr. G. brought me a lump of rock- crystal as large as a man's fist, which he picked up close to our tent ; and it serves me for a paper weight. " At nine work begins, and I attend to my household duties, sweeping the room, etc., and then am ready to help M. in writing out agreements for lots and memberships. At 12.30 the train comes in, and we go down to dinner. At 5.30 it is almost dark ; supper is at six, and then we shut up our tent and spend a cosy evening." Wednesday, Nov. 2. — Drove up to Glen Eyrie with Mrs, P., and General P. and M. followed us up to tea. Glen Eyrie lies about five miles north-west of town, between the Garden of the Gods and Monument Park. It is a valley in the foot- hills, about half a mile long and a little less broad, shut in from the plains by a rock wall, which runs almost from Cheyenne Mountain to Monument Park, some fourteen miles, varying in height from fifty feet to some hundred, with here and there a gateway through to some valley or canon. Into Glen Eyrie debouches one of the finest cafions in the neighbourhood ; it has been explored for ten miles into the mountains, and goes on no one knows how much farther. At the very mouth of the caiion, close to a beautiful group of Douglassii pine, and just above the little rushing LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 51 mountain torrent, which used to be known to trappers as " Camp Creek," the P.s are building a most charming large house : but till it is finished they live in a sort of picnic way, in rooms 10x10, partitioned off from the loft over the stable ! There was just room for us all four to sit at tea, and we had great fun. There were four cups, but no The Canon in Glen Eyrie. saucers ; and we had borrowed two forks from the restaurant, so that we each had one. Their coloured servant had cooked some excellent venison and " flapjacks " for us ; and we had Californian honey, blackberry preserve, first-rate coffee, and baked potatoes. M. and I drove home in the buggy, at 9 p.m., with two 62 SOUTH BY WEST. mules that " scared" continually ; and as the road down to Colorado City, three miles, seemed a series of hills, pits, gulches, banks, streams, etc., the drive was more exciting than agreeable. Just as we were crossing a little creek a huge owl flapped out of a tree right before us ; and the mules, I thought, would have thrown themselves flat down : then, as we came to the Company's irrigating ditch outside Colo- rado City, they scared again, and nearly went over the side of the bridge. Through the city we heard what we thought at first were coyotes (prairie wolves), but it turned out to be a stray foal, which came after us full gallop, whinnying all the way, and caught us up close to the restaurant, where, of course, we had a splendid " scare." It was a glorious night ; the moon almost as bright as day, and the air so mild that we felt oppressed in all our fur wrappings. The first few days passed quickly in learning the ways of the country, and settling down in our new life. Up to that time I had seen nothing at all alarming in the way of Indians or wild beasts ; but there came a day when M. was obliged to go up to Denver on business, leaving me under Mr. N.'s care. The day was busy enough. I had to manufacture a cage for some snow-birds {EremojjJdla cornuta, a sort of lark) which the French nursery -gardener had caught for me ; and when one has nothing handy to make a cage of, it naturally takes some time. Leroy caught the cock first, late one even- ing ; and I kept it all night in a little pen on the top of my trunk, made of Martin Chuzzlcunt, a candy-box, my travel- ling-bag, and two blocks of firewood ; the whole covered with a bit of flannel. But next day came the hen ; and, of course, must have a cage, and the cage required much thought. First I begged an old candle-box from the grocery store, and over the front of it I twisted some wire which the negro from the office got for me off an old broom-handle. As there was not enough to finish it, and none was to be bought for love or money nearer than Denver, I had to put LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 53 a board over the rest of the opening. In the evening, how- ever, when I secured the tent-flap, and set to work to make up my fire, I began to feel the " creepy" sensation of our nursery days stealing over me. My only living companion was a very dirty black-and-white kitten called " Tucker : " but M. had left me his revolver, so that I felt pretty secure, and when I was well warmed I locked myself into my room, and with the pistol close to my side, and the kitten on my feet, was fast asleep in a minute. How long I had slept I knew not ; but I was awoke by a sound I had never heard before. Peal upon peal of demoniac laughter, mingled with shrieks and screams, seemed sweeping past the shanty— now loud, now softer, till they died away in the distance. I flew up, and with the revolver across my knee, listened in a per- fect agony of terror : but the sound, whatever it was, had gone by, and by the time I had struck a match, and found it was four a.m., 1 knew what it must be — a band of Coyotes (prairie wolves) had come through town on a raid after stray sheep. And small blame to me if I was frightened ; for many a stout Westerner has told me how, camping out on the plains in hourly expectation of an Indian attack, a band of Coyotes have made every man spring to his feet with rifle or revolver cocked, thinking the wolfish chorus was an Indian war-whoop. November 7. — The P.s came back from Denver, bringing me a splendid silver-back bear robe as a birthday present, which makes our tent look luxurious. We invited Dr. B. and Mr. to tea in honour of my birthday, and M. and I had great fun preparing for our house-warming. He went out and got a white teapot and mill<:-jug, six tin mugs, six forks, knives, tea-spoons, and plates : a tin basin for washing the dishes, a packet of tea and sugar, a bag of crackers (bis- cuits), and two boxes of sardines. We laid the table in English style, and felt quite "high-toned" — to use a Western- ism — when our guests came in. We had previously insisted 54 SOUTH BY WEST. on Dr. B, going doM'n to the restaurant and eating a large supper, for fear of making too large an inroad on our tea, which was exactly like boiled hay. We thoroughly enjoyed being four Britishers together so far away from the old country; and, after our sumptuous tea, sat chatting and singing songs round the stove till eight, when our party dispersed, as the haunting demon of America — business — called for their services again, and M. got out his office books, and I answered home-letters. November 8. — Having all my dishes to wash after our party the night before, I spent some time in "searching around" for a dish-cloth ; and at last by good luck hit on half a towel in the office, and was boasting of my treasure at dinner to Dr. G., when he mildly informed me it was his, but, with a pioneer's proverbial generosity, allowed me to keep possession of it. After the dish-washing was accom- plished, we went to see Mr. 's start for Wet Mountain, as small events are very great in the life of a young colony. He had an ambulance, packed with every kind of thing for I setting up a ranche, drawn by a team of four mules, his I own pony being tied behind. The waggon was drawn up close to the side of a shanty where some of the colony officers sleep ; and when at last the mules were harnessed," and Mr. and his companion, a young Dutch master- carpenter, were getting in, the wheelers started forward, the leaders stopped dead, and crack, crack went the wheel against the shanty, carrying off half-a-dozen of the shingles. M. seized the mules' heads and stopped them after twenty yards ; half the things fell out of the waggon, the whip flew one way, the oats another, and the bystanders looked on in perfect convulsions of laughter. After four false starts they got off at last, the pony hanging back and acting as a brake to the frantic mules : but how they have sped who can tell ? Neither of them know the road, now deep in snow ; and Wet Mountain Valley is 100 miles from here. LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 55 Two more English friends came down by the train ; so we determined to pay a visit to the Soda Springs at Manitou, six miles off, where there is a temporary hotel kept by English people ; and we set off about 5 p.m. It was dark, except for the light from four inches of snow, against which the road showed quite black ; while an icy north wind was blowing down from the Divide, and whistled round and through us. The road up to Colorado City, a gambling and drinking den two miles from the railroad, seemed to me decidedly bad, especially as it was two or three inches deep in stiff mud : but it was beautiful, compared to that from the city up to Manitou. We had to cross the Colony irrigating ditch two or three times, besides Camp Creek, and various other creeks, on bridges made of planks laid loose crosswise over supports without any fastening or any railing at the side. But worst of all was the ford over the Fountain Creek, close to the Soda Springs. We drove straight down the bank into the river, which boiled and foamed over a rocky bed ; and the descent was so steep that when the horses were in the water the hind wheels were as high as their backs. We plunged and struggled through, and up the other bank, and then breathed freely. Next day, when . I complained of the road, I was seriously reproved by some stanch Coloradan, who said it was as good a road as any one could want. The creek passed, in a minute more we were at the tem- porary inn, a long one-storied wooden shed of single boards, divided off into a double set of rooms on either side of a passage, excepting in the entry and dining-room, where it is open. The night was cool, to say the least ; and in spite of five blankets and a bear- robe, whose weight was suffocating, my face was nearly frost-bitten. Eor, as the hotel was only run up for summer visitors, the boards had large spaces between 56 SOUTH BY WEST. them ; and when I woke in the morning I was surprised to find how much daylight showed through the walls. On looking out of the window, I found we were in an exquisite valley, with pine-covered mountains rising 5000 feet up from the Fontaine qui bouille, as it used to be called in old trapping days. In these more prosaic times it is merely Fountain Creek. The sun shone bright over the snow, and blue jays, with crest erect and screaming voices, flashed through the scrub oak round the creek. The Soda Springs lie in a group along the stream ; some on the bank, and others in its actual bed. There are four principal ones ; the first you reach is the " Manitou," close to the road, the basin of which is some five or six feet across. The largest spring, "the Navajo," has formed a large basin, six or eight feet across, in the centre of wliich the water boils up in a violent current. One would sup- pose there was water enough to make a good-sized trout- stream : yet not more than five or six gallons a minute issue from it. The overflow is carried off to the creek by a channel four inches wide and one inch deep, through the thick incrustation of soda deposit which spreads all over the surrounding rocks. Fifteen feet higher up the creek.lies the third, a chalybeate spring, wdiich deposits no sediment. On the opposite side of the creek lies the " Galen Spring." It is the smallest of the four, but much the strongest; and is used chiefly for drinking. The cavity is about 1 2 inches in diameter, and the water 1| feet deep. The bubbles rise ceaselessly, but not more than half a gallon of water per minute passes off. Tliere is a constant deposit of whitish substance from the spring, which extends down to the margin of the creek, twenty feet off, on each side of the tiny stream which trickles from the " Galen." Professor Hayden, in the U. S. Geological Survey, says, " The water issues from the ground very near the junction of the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, close by the LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 57 base of Pike's Peak, . . . These springs must necessarily have their origin in the metamorphic rocks, although the waters may pass up through a considerable thickness of the older sedimentary. On both sides of Fountain Creek there is a considerable thickness of the carboniferous beds ; but the creek seems to run through a sort of monoclinal rift, though at the falls above the stream cuts through the ridges nearly at right angles. At any rate, there cannot be a very great thickness of the unchanged rocks below the surface of the springs." The water seems to maintain the same temperature, about 65°, all the year round, being pleasantly cool in summer, and never freezing in winter. About half a mile from the creek lies the " Iron Ute " spring, up a splendid gorge, called Ingleman's canon, with Pinus Douglassii and silver fir springing up between every rock. This spring is the finest and strongest of all ; the water containing, in addition to the salts of soda and potash of the lower springs, a large proportion of iron. From the Soda Springs, a trail through pine woods, and up rocky mountain sides, leads to the summit of Pike's Peak. This expedition may be made in two days by sleeping at the half-way house just below "timber line ;" that is to say, 11,000 feet above the sea; and, though rather a rough trip, is quite practicable for ladies. It would be difficult, in any part of the world, to find such a series of mineral springs in finer scenery. And there can be no doubt that the prophecies of Euxton and Fre- mont will be fulfilled ; and that the " Fountain Colony" will answer aU the expectations of its promoters, and become a da'i:.gerous rival to Saratoga and the Sulphur Springs of the East. From the upper end of the Manitou valley a road leads up to South Park and the mountains over the famous old " Ute Pass," where the Ute Indians of the mountains lay in 58 . SOUTH BY WEST. wait for the mountain buffalo coming down to feed in winter on the plains, when driven out of their summer haunts in South Park by the snow. All this little valley and the town site of Colorado Springs have witnessed terrible fights between the Utes and the Cheyennes. It was a kind of neutral ground ; and when one tribe dared to set foot upon it, their enemies were all ready to pounce upon them. So late as 1869 the Cheyennes scalped and killed six white people between the present railroad track and Colorado City. Sunday, November 12. — A splendid morning: but we were rather late, and just as we were starting for breakfast in the restaurant, the wind changed, blowing all the smoke and fire down into the tent ; so I had to rush to the office, which is always my refuge when the stove goes wrong, which it does once a day, while M. fought the chimney. When it was brought to reason by the united genius of M., Mr. B. the contractor, and Butler the office-negro, it was too late for breakfast; so we cooked some coffee and " Eamornie" extract of meat, had some bread, butter, and potted meat, doing well on the whole for an extempore breakfast. Then M. was called away to the office, and I made my bed, " fixed up " my rdom, fed the kitten and the remaining snow-bird (the other having been frozen to death in my room on Tuesday night), washed all the breakfast things, and put them away ; and by that time M.- came back, and we settled down to write home. Then the tent flap is pushed back ; a head comes in ; M. jumps up crying " Why, Ike ! how goes ? " and rushes out. It is Ike, the hunter from Cheyenne Manitou ; and they stand outside talking for ten minutes, while I make notes of the first real hunter I have seen, for the benefit of the home- letters. A tall young fellow in his Sunday clothes, which of course are not half as picturesque as his week-day ones would be. A soft black hat, rough pilot coat, dark trousers, tucked into long boots up to the knee, and a pair of beaver gloves LIFE IN A NEW T0^^^. 59 peeping out of his pocket. He and M. make a good group ; with his chestnut horse, and its qvieer bridle and Mexican saddle with broad stirrup straps and high peak in front ; and the glorious mountains as a background. Off he canters one way, M. goes another, and I curl up on my bear-robe and begin to read ; when I hear a clatter, and look out in time to see the Santa Yi stage with its four bay horses swing past the tent. I begin to read again, and the flap is slowly pushed aside, and in walks " Bruce," the deerhound, to grin lov- ingly at me, and retire to his wife " Lady" outside. Then comes a knock ; a strange man appears to ask where B., the livery-man whom the company employs, lives ; and by the time I have sent him off about his business it is dinner-time, and we go down to the restaurant. We had settled to go up to Manitou for the afternoon : but at twelve the sun, which had been intensely hot all the morning, clouded over ; a snow-storm swept over the moun- tains, coming down within a mile of us ; and when at two it cleared off, we found that one of the mules had strayed last night, and that Butler the negro had taken the other to go and look for it. So we contented ourselves with a walk to Mount Washington with the two dogs : for as there is neither church nor service here yet, the only way Sunday can be kept is by making it a day of rest from the incessant business of the week. We struck across the prairie-rise on which the town stands, passing bones of cattle and antelope strewn here and there, to a deep gulch, almost dry now ; and climbed up the brown slope of sandy soil, to find the other side covered with gramma, buffalo, and bunch grasses — the three kinds which form the pasturage on the plains — mixed with the dry stalks and seed-pods of fifty varieties of flowers. What would I give to see them in flower ! I gathered a few seeds, and passed a fine lupin, whose pods were not ripe. As we got higher up the vegetation changed a little, and the ground 60 SOUTH BY WEST. was strewn with blocks of stone, red granitic hornblende, and any quantity of quartzose stones, some pink, some white. When we came to Mount Washington itself, a solitary hill about 2| miles south-east of the town, rising some 300 or 400 feet above the plain, we passed a few Eocky Mountain pines (Pinus ponderosa) with their large cones and fine long foliage. We scrambled up the little mount over the red rocks, covered with bunches of blue gentian, now dry and withered, but, owing to the excessive dryness of the air, keeping their colour quite brightly ; Spanish bayonet {Yuccct filifcra), the only green thing which shows now on the plains ; and prickly cactus ; and at last we stood panting on the top. The air is so rarified that it makes going up the slightest hill quite an effort. It was a glorious view. North lay the Divide, shining with snow ; west, the mountains in purple shade witji snow clouds sweeping over the higher peaks ; south, flat land with mesas — long table-lands rising out of the plain. East lay the Bluffs, a continuation of Mount Washington, shutting out the great plains from our view. These plains run east to Kansas, without a single tree, for 400 miles. Talking of Kansas : the Kansas Pacific Eailroad has been entirely blocked with snow for some three days. A train got into Denver the day before yesterday ; and one tried to get in yesterday, but failed. It is a great pity, on account of our letters, which all come by that line. But on the other hand it makes us rather rejoice down here at the con- trast between the broad and narrow gauges, as the little Denver and Kio Grande has never been stopped yet by the snow, and was only 2| hours behind time on the worst day. We walked back from Mount Washington as the sun went down behind Cheyenne Momitain, without seeing any game ; which was disappointing to the dogs, who were looking out for a jack rabbit {Lepiis campestris of Waterhouse), or a coyote, and got no reward for their long walk save innumer- LITE IN A NEW TOWN. 61 able cactus spines which stuck in their feet, and made theni come limping to us every half-mile to have them extracted. Last night, or rather about 7 P.M., we had a pack of coyotes through the town. We were sitting in the hut after tea; Lady was lying in the corner; Bruce was out; when the pack rushed past, yelling and laughing as if Bedlam were let loose. Bruce gave tongue outside ; Lady dashed at the tent door, M. after her, catching her by her back ; the cat jumped up spitting and growling ; and I thought the world was gone mad. The whole thing took less time than it does to write it, and then all was quiet. These little excitements are very strange, and make one realize that one actually is in the Far West, among the wolves and trappers and the fantastic life which one reads of at home, and which it is sometimes difficult to conceive. November 13, — A lovely morning, clear and hot, with a wisp of cloud hovering round the highest peaks. Last night it was bitterly cold, and I had to go to bed without a fire, as no power which we could bring to bear would make the stove light. Field and Hill's rooms, for the new office above their store, were ready ; so we decided to move over in the after- noon ; and I went out, and sitting on a log of firewood, did a sketch of our old shanty. I am really sorry to leave it : we have had such fun there : but it is getting too late in the year for tent-life, and it will be pleasant to get into a good plastered room. Mrs, P. has undertaken to begin a school for the colonists' children, and opened it this morning. I went up before she arrived, and found seven children all in great excitement about their teacher. The school is some way up the town side; a pretty three -roomed house which ]Mrs. P. has rented till a regular school-house can be built, I returned to the dear old shanty to pack up and move. What work it was : and how I hate moving ! Leroy, the 62 SOUTH BY WEST. Frencli gardener, was invaluable, and kept running back- wards and forwards between the shanty and the new office all the afternoon ; — first with a teapot and lamp, then a bundle of rugs, then odds and ends of every kind, from sardine boxes down to fossils, which he stuffed into a big basket. My room is delightful. The Company has taken the three rooms over Field and Hill's dry goods and grocery store, with an outside staircase leading up to them. The front room is the office, the middle M. and Mr. N. share, and the back one has been allotted to me. I have a splendid stove in the middle, which keeps me quite warm ; and have two windows looking over the town east away to the plains, with the white bluffs at Jimmey's Camp showing twenty miles away. From the office windows we look on the whole range, with Pike's Peak as a central point, and have the amusement of seeing all that goes on at the depot and on the line a quarter of a mile below us. The store is also the temporary Stage Office till the real one is built, and one of our daily excitements is the arrival and departure of the coach, coming up from the south to " connect" here with the up train, and taking the new arrivals on to Pueblo, Maxwells, or Santa Fe in New Mexico. It is a sight I am never tired of watching : the coach with its four splendid bays, standing in front of the office ; the horses held by two men, a third with the reins ready ; the " messenger " stowing his mail-bags safely away ; the pas- sengers bundling in for a period of misery of varying length. When all is ready, and not till then, out walks the great man, in yellow blanket coat, and hat securely tied down with a great comforter. He mounts the box, arranges himself leisurely ; the messenger is beside him, wrapped in buffalo robes ; then the reins are put in his hand, and as he tightens them, away go the horses with a rush that takes one's breath away. LIFE IX A NEW TOWN. 63 The Western stage-driver, on his box, with the " lines," as they call the reins, in his hand, is inferior to no one in the Eepublic. Even the President, were he on board, must submit to his higher authority. Among many and varied accomplishments, these stage- drivers have the credit of being able to consume a prodigious amount of whisky. The following story is the most remark- able illustration of this trait in their character ; the incident occurring, I was assured by the narrator, on the mail that runs south from Denver to Santa FL "As the coach drove up to the door of the hotel in Denver, out stepped a jolly-looking Englishman, and asked for the box-seat. The stage-driver eyed him from head to foot dubiously, till he saw in his baggage a keg of whisky, when, with a slight change of countenance, he told him, ' he guessed he could fix it.' And when the messenger cried ' All aboard,' the Englishman and his whisky took the box-seat. " The first twelve-mile stage was monotonous, the Eng- lishman probably meditating on 450 miles by coach ; and the stage-driver, who seemed desperately taken up with his horses, on ' that thar whisky barrel.' " The station is reached at last ; and the Englishman, feeling cold, announced that he was going inside for the next stage : but wishing to do the right thing asked the stage- driver first whether he would have a drink. " ' Waal,' says he, ' guess I will,' and catching hold of the barrel uncorks it with a masterly hand, and for the space of some twenty seconds goes through an elaborate process of "star-gazinfj" throuc;h a wooden kecr. " ' Waal,' he remarks, 'that's rale good :' setting it down. " ' Oh, if you like it,' says the Englishman, 'just keep it up there, I shan't want any for the next stage,' and jump- ing in dozes off in a troubled sleep, or at least the nearest approach to one which the bumps and jerks of the old Con- cord coach will allow, till they change horses at the next stage. 64 SOUTH BY WEST. " Feeling thoroughly chilled he jumps out and asks the driver for the keg, which is handed down to him, and through which he proceeds to "star-gaze" in the most ap- proved Western fashion. To his surprise and horror not a drop oozes out. " ' Why,' he says, ' what 's gone with the whisky ? ' " ' Why,' says the stage-driver, ' ain't there none thar ?' " ' No,' said the Englishman ; ' what's happened to it ?' " ' I guess it leaked out.' " ' But that 's impossible ; where can it have leaked to V " ' Waal,' says the stage-driver, ' guessed it 's leaked down my throat.' " ' Down your throat ! why, man, you don't mean to say you 've drank it all ? ' " ' Why not ? thar warn't much whisky nither.' " ' Why, my good man, you don't mean to say that in a twelve-mile stage you drank the whole of that keg of whisky ? ' " ' Yes. But then, ye know, what 's one keg of whisky amongst one stage-driver ? ' " CHAPTER IV. LIFE IX A NEW TOWX continued. The weatlier— Washing and cooking— The penalties of a free co\uitrj' — Visitors from Denver — A snowy pillow— The cold "snap" — A presentiment — Sun- shine again— The Falls of the Fountain— Starting a reading-room— Colonist- catching — The Garden of the Gods — Pete shows his wisdom. Noveiiiber 14. — Swept out my new room and " fixed up" a little : but I have no shelves at present, which is dis- tracting. Then I made sis copies of schoel circulars for ]\I. to send round to the oiitlying colonists. In the after- noon drove up to Manitou with Mrs. P. I had no idea how lovely the drive was ; as when we went up last week it was quite dark, and coming down towards the town we miss the best view looking up the Fountain to Pike's Peak and the Lete Pass. "VYe drove with a very slow pair of mules, so we had no time to go round by the Garden of the Gods, as we intended at first. We are having glorious weather during the day, hot and sunny with a fresh wind, though the nights are very cold. Coming home we stop]ied at one of the Soda Springs ; and an old man they call The Hermit, who has lived here for years in a shanty, and drinks the water all day to cure his rheumatism, brought us a tin cup to get some soda-water. Novanher 15. — AVent over to Mrs. C.'s, and did a quan- tity of washing ; it was hard work ; and I am to iron the things to-morrow. When I first arrived I found that wasli- E 66 SOUTH BY WEST. ing, done very badly, at $2.50 (10s.) a dozen, would not at all suit my ideas. So my kind neighbour, Mrs. C, offered me the weekly use of her wash-tubs and irons ; and after scoi-ch- ing a few collars, getting into a state of black despair with the starch, rubbing the skin off my knuckles with the rubber, and burning my hands with the irons, I have turned into quite a good laundress. Many are the pleasant mornings we spend over our wash-tubs, while she tells me stories of her life in beautiful California and Oregon, which she left two years ago. The C.'s insisted on my stopping to dinner, and we had an excellent one of roast-beef and tapioca- pudding, which I helped Mrs. C. to cook in the intervals of washing. This afternoon a man and his wife came up to the office to speak to M. ; and, to my delight, I found they were English from Lincolnshire. They have been out seventeen years, most of the time in Canada ; and have been down here rather more than a year keeping a dairy-farm over the Creek. I took Mrs. — — to my room, and we made friends in a moment over our English sympathies. It was really delightful once again to hear a genuine English misplacement of "h's," in the way she talked of the "hair" of Colorado being very different from the " hold " country. M. and I went for a walk down to see the " boarding train," in which the men at work on the line live ; but it had gone up to the Divide, and we came home past the graveyard. It is right out in the open, so desolate, with railings round each grave, sadly suggestive of wolves.-^ The school is flourishing, and every one is pleased. I went up to see it yesterday. It was just recess-time, and the children were getting their luncheon. A daughter of M.'s washerwoman came, and said " Good-morning " to me, ^ Since writing the above, the graveyard has been moved to the southern slope of INIount Washington, where a pretty cemetery has been laid out. LIEE IX A NEW TOWX. 67 with a kiss, whicli I did not receive with due gratitude, as she had evidently breakfasted off garlic. But this is a free country, where the washerwoman is as good as 1 5 and consequently I must submit, with smiling submission, to being kissed by her daughter. M. has made the two deerhounds a charming wooden house under my window, into which " Lady " rushed last night with yells of delight, took possession of the warmest corner, and made a nice bed in the hay ; but tiresome " Bruce " refused to be caught, or to come when he was called, and was only secured to-day, after he had been fight- ing another dog ; whereupon M. tied him up to his house, and he has been howling ever since, to our utter distraction. ^ "■ The surveying and planting out of the Manitou valley into villa sites began yesterday. Messrs. N. and Von M. have begun mapping it out. November 15. — ^AVent up to my friend ]\Irs. C.'s, and ironed my clothes. I am able to do it quite quickly now. Mr. J., treasurer of the D. and E. G., with his sister from Philadelphia, came down on the train from Denver, I offered Miss J. half my room for the night, which she accepted gladly, as there was no place for a lady to sleep in nearer than Manitou. About 4 P.M. M. had "Baby" and "Mouse"— two of the mules — put into the ambulance, and took us for a drive to the north side of the town, through a large prairie-dog town. It covers some acres in that direction, and makes the road at night rather unsafe ; for the little dogs are fond of mak- ing a hole right in the middle of the road, quite undisturbed by the traffic. After supper, it was such a lovely evening, briglit and warm, with a new moon, that I proposed a walk ; so the J.'s, Dr. B., Captain de C, and we, walked off southwards across the town-side, to the Santa Fe road. "When we got home, I made tea in my room, and we spent a most pleasant even- 68 SOUTH BY WEST. ing, talking round the stove of England and America, and books, etc. When ]\Ir. J. and M. left us, about ten, we found, to our amazement, it was snowing. We could hardly believe it after our delicious walk ; but Miss J. and I made ourselves up as warm as we could, and went to bed. I covered her up with the buffalo-robe, as she was sleeping on a camp-bed, with her head towards the door, and went to sleep in a moment myself under my bear-robe. But in the middle of the night we were woke by a terrific wind- storm, which made the house shake and rock as if the roof were coming off every minute. Finding, however, that we did not fly away in our beds, we " concluded " to go to sleep again : but about 4 a.m. I was woke by Miss J. saying, " I don't know what it is : but my head is getting very wet." Up I jumped, lit a candle, and found that the snow was drifting right in through the cracks on each side of the door and the key-hole on to Miss J.'s head, and that there was a little drift on the floor nearly two inches thick. It did not take a minute to turn her bed round, put two chairs by the door, with my waterproof cloak over them as a screen, and fly into bed again. I slept till six, when I got up and lit the stove ; but as I had nothing but " kindling," it did not burn long : M. having taken our one coal-scuttle into the office the night before, and forgotten to bring it back. There was nothing for it but to huddle ourselves up in blankets till about 7.30, when M. knocked at the door with some hot water he had heated for me in the office. The snow had ceased : but the wind was blowing a perfect hurricane against our door, and the house was rocking and shaking frightfully. At 8.30 we made a rush into the office, where M. and Mr. J. were waiting for their two half- ' frozen sisters. The wind was so strong I could hardly shut my door as we came out, and the cold, as we ran down a quarter of a mile to breakfast, was really fearful. I put LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 69 on a fur muffler, and wrapt my cloud round and round my head, and yet my right ear, which was on the windy side, was in such torture I thought it must be frost-bitten ; but I was consoled for the pain by learning that when it hurts you are all safe, and that only when a comfortable sensation of warmth comes on is one in dano;er of beinfj " frosted." How good breakfast was after that bitter walk ! but the struggle home against the wind was far less pleasant. After we got back, Miss J. and I made our beds, put the room straight, and sat reading and writing all the morn- ing, till it was time for dinner, when we made another rush for the restaurant. The snow was drifting tremendously, the strong wind lifting the dry powdery particles off the ground, and blow- ing it across the plain in clouds of white dust. The ther- mometer outside our house registered 13° above zero, — 19° of frost. The train, we thought, would of course be stopped by drifts on the Divide : but it was only one hour late; and, in the middle of dinner, in it steamed. It was really a fine sight. The little ' Cortez' had been through the snow-drifts, up to the top of the lamp in front of the chimney. The wheels, and every ledge and corner, were a mass of snow, and the icicles hung in a crystal fringe all along the boiler. W., the engineer, came in to dinner, looking, as they said, " pretty wild, as if he had had a struggle for it," and said he thought they would not get back to Denver before morning, as the wind would be against tliem. So Miss J. decided to stay with me another day : while her brother and another oftlcial determined to risk it, and go back to Denver by the afternoon train. W. is a fine fellow, and one of the best engineers in the West. He saved a train on the Kansas Pacific last summer, by his care and prudence, in a strange way. It was a very dark wet night, tlie rails very slippery, and he had a kind of presentiment that if he tried to make up time he would 70 SOUTH BY WEST. have an accident ; so lie went slowly down a long grade before coming to one of the longest trestle-bridges on the line, over a deep gully. When he got to it he felt certain something would go wrong if he crossed it ; so he shut off all steam and jammed the breaks down : but by this time he was so close that the engine and some of the front cars were on the bridge before he could pull up. He sent a man on to see if all was right, and found that two of the trestles in the middle of the bridge were gone ! Had he run on, the whole train would have gone rigjlit throuoh to the bottom of the gully, a depth of forty feet. The afternoon was as bad as the morning, driving snow- dust and bitter wind : but towards evening the snow began to disappear, evaporating into the dry air, though the thermometer never rose above 29° all^day outside the house. I8th. — Woke at 6.30 to find the sun blazing through my red curtains, and not a breath of wind stirring. The snow is almost gone here ; but we hear that the train had a rough time last night. They got up with great difficulty to within five miles of the top of the Divide : but, being short of water, had to run back ten miles ; and at 2 a.m. this morning they had not reached the top, although forty men from the construction train had turned out to help them. However, they got into Denver at eight this morning, and the down- train started at 9.25. After making the beds and sweeping the room, ]Miss J. and I went down for a walk to the creek. It looked very pretty, half-covered with ice, in the bright sunshine, the ice cracking and snapping like little pistols every moment. The bushes were bare, except here and there a plant of prairie-rose with its leaves still flame-colour ; and I got two curious kinds of cones off a willow by the water. Miss J. went off to Denver by the afternoon train ; and Mr. jM., an Englishman from Maxwells in New Mexico, who LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 71 has been here for a day or two, left also ; so we expected to be quite alone again. But the down train brought a very- agreeable young German-Eussian engineer, who has been sent out by the Eussian Government to inspect American railroads and bridges. M. and I drove with him up to Manitou in the afternoon, and as he could speak hardly any English, I at once began talking French, and we had a very pleasant drive. When we got to Manitou we three walked up to the Falls of the Fountain with j\Ir. B. and Mr. von M., about half a mile above the hotel. It is the most ex- quisite valley, or rather canon, I have ever seen, just wide enough for a narrow road, while the foaming stream dashes down over red rocks and fallen trees, and barriers of frozen snow, with huge Douglassii pines, red cedars, and pinons, shading it on either side. We walked over the crisp snow, frozen so hard that it did not wet one's boots, and crossed the Fountain by a single log, not more than twelve inches in diameter, and slippery with ice. M. gave me his hand, and though I was in a great fright for fear of a cold bath, I got over all right. Then up we climbed a long narrow path along the face of the clifi", and saw a beaver dam down in the stream below. Up again, past a hut where the men who are blasting the road were cooking their supper, while two black-tailed deer's heads and skins were drying on a bush outside ; and at last we came to the end of the present road, and climbed along a track in the rocks about sixty feet above the stream, where the road is to go, and M. gave me a helping hand again till we came to a point opposite the Falls. They are not very grand : Init the canon down which the Fountain comes is splendid, winding up into the mountains, which rise several thousand feet above the stream, their black pines standing out sharp against the gleaming snow. It was enchanting ; the rush of falling water, the ice and snow, the pines, the crimson rocks, 72 SOUTH BY WEST. the noble mountains, and the fading light, made up a picture I shall never forget. We turned homewards, and reaching the temporary inn found that Dr. B, and Captain de C, who walked up, had just arrived, to pretty Mrs. de C.'s delight, who had been all alone for three days, with nobody to speak to, and both her babies sick. We had a pleasant tea all together, and M, von W., Mr. von M., and I kept up a jargon of mingled Trench and German all the time, to the great diversion of the rest of the party. We had to finish tea quickly in order to be back at Colorado Springs in time for a meeting about the reading-room and Scientific Society ; and Dr. B., M., and I drove home in the bright moonlight with Pete and Baby, who, unlike most mules, never require a whip ; and got in just at 7.30. As the population is increasing every day, we and some of the colonists have been trying to devise some plan to get up a reading-room, where the young men may spend their evenings, instead of lounging about the town, or going up to drink in the saloons at Colorado City. So we sent out to invite the colonists to meet together and discuss the subject this evening. We carried chairs, lamps, and benches over to the railroad office, and had a capital meeting of thirteen, Mr. F. made a very good speech ; and when M. and Mr. M. F. were appointed to frame the constitution and bye-laws, and some one raised the question of what would happen if they did not agree, Mr. F., in the most gallant manner, said of course M. " would do nothin<2: without his sister's advice, so there could be no difficulty," — a sentiment which caused much laughter. $143 were subscribed on the spot, and I had the honour of naming the Society the " Fountain Society of Natural Science." Novemhcr 19^^.. — M. and I drove up to Manitou after breakfast, and took the De C.'s to the Garden of the Gods, one of the great sights here. LIFE IX A NEW TOWX. 73 Half way between the Springs and Colorado City we overtook a man, who M. thought might be a new-comer ; and having the interest of the colony always in view, asked him if he would like a lift ; and in he got behind. He was a New-Yorker, he said, and had been out three weeks in Colorado, having come for his health. " He liked the place so well," he said, " that he had con- cluded to remain, and being a lawyer had stepped right into business." I happened to make some remark to ]M. : where- upon he said — • " Madam, I presume you are an English lady." I laughed and said, " Yes, that I supposed he had found me out by my sj)eech." " Yes," he replied, " I could tell at once. I think it ex- tremely pleasant to hear the language spoken by an English person, when they speak well." M. said, " I suppose you would hardly take me for English." "No, sir!" said the gentleman, "you are not English surely ?" "I ought to be," replied M., " considering we are brother and sister." That was quite too much for our friend ; however, we made him such pretty speeches, that when he got out at the very unattractive hotel at Colorado City, he nearly vowed eternal friendship, and gave us such pressing invitations to call upon him that we hope he will settle at Colorado Springs, in order to cultivate our society ; so by a little civility we trust we have caught a fine large colonist. When we got to Manitou we took up the De C.'s, and started back for the Garden of the Gods. ^Ye turned off the road half way between Manitou and Colorado City, across a sowed field, and over frightful ups and downs till we came to a bridge across the Eountain. It was just wide enough for the waggon — here all kinds of carriages are called waggons — 74 SOUTH BY WEST. and was quite rotten. How we got over I know not, for Pete, who had been turned out for some tune, and was not on his best behaviour, shied violently in the middle. How- ever, we did get over in safety, and drove along what was dignified by the name of a road : though it more resembled newly-dug celery trenches, varied by gravel-pits, and a deep ditch right across every few hundred feet. At last we got The Gate of the Garden of the Gods. into the Outer Garden, a great open space of grass under the foot-hills, with scattered pines, and here and there fantastic sandstone rocks ; and further on, to our right, lay the great rocks, the real wonder of the Garden. We passed many weird-like figures praying, with their heads all bent towards Cheyenne Mountains ; then a red sandstone nun, with a white cowl over her head, looking at a seal who stood LIFE IX A NEW TOWN. 10 on his tail, and made faces at her. There, I was told, two cherubs were fondly kissing, though to my eyes I confess they looked more like a pair of sheep's heads ; and so find- ing new absurdities every moment, we came to the great gateway ; drove between the huge red rocks, 250 feet high ; and turned to see the view. It surpasses everything I have yet seen. The great rocks were of a warm salmon colour, with green pines growing in their crevices, bringing out the richness of their colouring; and between them, as if set in a glowirg Crossiug a Trestle Bridge Q). TO). frame, shone Pike's Peak, covered with snow, as a centre to the picture, with Cameron's Cone and the foot-hills, all blue, white, and pink, three or four miles off. I wish every one at home could see this view. No descriptions or photographs can do it justice ; and as for drawing it — who can do that ? We had come into the Garden " the back way ;" the best plan being to come first through the great gateway, and drive out at the other end. Driving back the way we came, we 76 SOUTH BY WEST. got along without misfortune, till we came to the unfortunate bridge again ; and this time Pete positively refused to cross. Twice M. got him to the middle, and Pete tried to push poor Baby over the side and then backed side-ways. At last M. told us to get out, and he took them at it four times : but a mule's mind, when once made up, is not to be moved, and we had at last to drive round another way. On the whole, perhaps Pete was right : for he had twice been through a bridge, — the last time having been lame for a month ; and the chances were considerably in favour of his going through this one. CHAPTEE Y CANOXS AND COLD, My first Cafion— Wild beasts— Pleasant society— A spelling matcli— Camp Creek Canon— Exploring by moonlight—Mountain air— Snow drifts— Triumph of the Narrow Gauge— The Fountain ditch— A Westerner— Antelope-shooting — A grand view — A change in our plans. " Colorado Springs, Tuesday, Nov. 23. " Dear * * * — I have been np a canon. Anything so wonderful I never saw in my life. " It was on last Sunday when we went up to Manitou, the Soda Springs ; and, fortified by a good English dinner, Dr. B. proposed a walk up a little canon at the back of the tem- porary inn. We turned off the road about fifty yards below the hotel, up a path through scrub oak, wild rose, gooseberry, raspberiy, and spiraea bushes, besides many other shrubs, which, as they are leafless, I cannot identify, with clematis festooning every bnsh. The valley for a quarter of a mile was an ordinary wooded mountain gorge ; but it suddenly closed in, and we found ourselves in front of a narrow gate- way of rocks, a hundred feet high or more ; and in a moment were in the canon. Tlie trail led up the bed of a little stream, then dry, which had sawn its way through walls of sandstone of every imaginable colour, from rich purple and crimson, to salmon- colour and white. The rocks were worn into the most fantastic shapes, battlements, castles, and pillars, hundreds 78 ' SOUTH BY WEST. of feet high, sometimes ahnost closing in the path ; then opening out on one side or the other into almost perpendicular hill-sides, covered with piiion, red and white cedar, rocky mountain pine, and Pinus Douglassii. We went under several of the latter growing in the canon. One I measured, which was eleven feet round, four feet from the ground ; and I am told that is a mere sapling to some higher up in the mountains. One had fallen, and we had to walk its whole length ; rather a slippery path, as it was covered with frozen snow several inches thick. Then came a sudden twist ; the rocks almost met over our heads, sandstone on one side, limestone on the other ; and I touched both sides of the canon at once, with- out stretching my arms to full length. " It was the wildest scene — the towering rocks, black pines, and white snow. We looked such impertinent atomies, daring to venture into the heart of the mountains. I never heard such stillness before ; it was quite oppressive ; not a breath of Avind, not a leaf stirring ; no sound or sign of life, save ourselves, and a solitary hawk wheeling round against the streak of blue sky we could see from our prison walls. For about a mile we Avent up, twisting and turning every twenty yards ; so that, looking back, one could not imagine how one had got in, or would ever get out again. " This canon has never yet been thoroughly explored : but it runs on for miles and miles into the mountains, get- ting grander and wilder the further it goes. " This is certainly a most uncanny country. Every stream saws out a canon. Every rock takes tlie likeness of some fantastic building or creature. " Tell G. I have seen plenty of beaver dams ; the streams are full of them all round ; and deer (Ijlack-tailed) are very plentiful, coming right down to Manitou. There are no bears very near, and no wolves, except coyotes, who very often come through the town at night, and scare us all, for their cry is just like the Indian war-whoop. CANONS AND COLD. 79 " We are getting quite a pleasant society here ; and, besides those who are settled here, like ourselves, there is a constant stream of Englishmen coming in from the ranches, or up from Maxwells ; and a good many visitors already come down from Denver, This morning I met Gov. H. at breakfast, and with him Mr. Bowles of " The Springfield (Mass.) Eepublican," who, with his very charming wife and daughter, has come out to see how Colorado is getting on. We walked together up to Gov. H.'s new house, which is nearly finished, and I took them to see our dogs, who are considered curiosities out here. Mr. Bowles asked me to join his party in an expedition down to the Indian Eeserva- tion in Kansas next week : and much I wish we could do it. " If the weather is fine, M. and I hope to take a trip this week or next up to Bergun's Park, twenty miles from here in the mountains. I hear it is a lovely place. It will be a three days' trip, and we shall stop at a ranche half way. " So you see, after all, though we are in ' the wilds,' we are tolerably civilized ; and do not go about clothed in skins, or armed with revolvers, or meet a bear if we take an afternoon walk." 2Sd. — At dinner-time INI. rushed in to say he must go up to Denver with Dr. B. on business ; so I was left alone again, and went over to the school to see Mrs. P., who is going on most perseveringly with her self-imposed occupa- tion. I heard the children's spelling-match, and the length of the words and the correctness of the spelling quite alarmed me. A spelling-match is a regular American institution, and is capitally described in that most remarkable book, The Hoosier Schoolmaster. Friday, 25th. — It has been a gloriinis day, bright sun, and quite warm, and I have never yet seen tlie mountains look so beautiful. Went up to the De C.'s after breakfast, and on the way back called in to see Mrs. G., who has 80 SOUTH BY WEST. moved into lier new store on Tejon Street to-day. It looks resplendent. The front is painted in black and white chec- qiiers, and a huge scarlet boot is hung out as a sign. It is one of the best buildings we have got in the town. On coming home, feeling in a very energetic frame of mind owing to the change of weather, I pulled all my small amount of furniture into the middle of the room, covered the floor with tea-leaves, which I had saved from our last tea-party, and swept out my room on the most approved English method. Sat 26. — Mrs. P. asked me to drive up to Glen Eyrie with her, and explore the Camp Creek Canon, above the house. Anything more lovely I never saw. At the entrance of the canon the coloured rock-walls are about a stone's-throw apart ; and the ravine on either side of the clear foaming stream is filled with a rich growth of trees and shrubs, festooned with Virginia creeper and wild clematis. Further up the waUs close in ; and we scrambled up, crossing and recrossing the stream every few yards, by fallen timber and boulders under lofty pines and cotton woods, till we came to the "Punch Bowl." The stream has scooped itself out a round path in the red and white streaked rocks, which rise high above the bed of the stream. The basin is about twenty feet across, and fills up the whole canon. The water falls into it over steps of rock ; and above it the canon winds up into the mountains, no one knows how far, as only a few miles of it have been as yet explored. About two miles up are some beautiful falls, which M. discovered last year : but as the only way across the Punch Bowl was by a single log of pine, very thin and covered with ice, and as I was wet through from wading through the snow, which was quite deep in some places, I did not feel inclined to risk the chance of an icy bath, but determined to see the Falls some other time, and we turned back to Glen Eyrie for dinner and dry shoes. General P. and Professor H. of Madison, Wisconsin, CANOXS AND COLD. 81 came up, and we started, as the sun set and the moon rose, to explore the upper end of Glen Eyrie. The moon looked so tempting over the crest of the hill that we set off on a track that leads up the high ridge dividing Glen Eyrie from the Upper Garden. After we had passed the great Echo Rocks, and made them sing two or three songs a couple of bars beliind us, a narrow track led us to the top with a scramble ; and once there, the view was really superb. To tlie right, on the crest of the hill, was a group of pines, through which the moon shone so brightly, it was like white daylight. Beliind us lay the Glen, with its strange red rocks, and the hills rising up to old Pike all covered with snow ; and in front of us another deep valley, shut in with another wall of rock, widening out into a park above, and below narrowing into a canon which apparently had no exit. None of us had ever been there before : but we plunged down the hill through deep snow, with here and there a Spanish bayonet sticking up to prick the unwary, down to the bed of the canon. It was so narrow that only one per- son at a time could squeeze along between the rocks ; and I began seriously to fear it would soon get too narrow for us to escape, and that we should have to stay there for the rest of our days. Suddenly, however, out of the intense black shade, we came into a streak of brilliant moonlight, which streamed throuc;h a cleft in the rocks before us not more than three feet wide ; and we saw we were at the gate of the canon with the outer valley in dazzling light beyond. We sat still for a few minutes to gaze in delight through the rocks ; then squeezed between them with some little difficulty, and looking back, could not see the passage by which we had emerged. It seemed as if we had broken through the lower panes of a Gothic window, which had been partly filled up with stone. Turning to the right we went up a high snow-covered hill to the foot of the outer wall of the Garden, more than 7000 F 82 SOUTH BY WEST. feet above the sea. This wall is a mass of rock from fifty to three hundred feet high, and in some places not more than eighteen feet thick, running along the top of a line of hills made apparently of debris of old rocks, and extending from near Cheyenne Mountain to Monument Park, with here and there an opening into one or other of the gardens or parks, where some creek has sawn its way through. It was a stiff climb through the snow, in the intensely rarefied air, which completely takes one breath away going up hill ; and for five minutes after we reached the top I felt as if my chest had been scraped raw : but after a little rest this sensation went off. Going down was much pleasanter than getting up, and in a little while we were wading through the snow and mud up to the stable, where the P.'s are still living, as their house is not finished. After supper and a very pleasant evening, Professor H. drove me home, and we found M. waiting to receive us. He had had a rough journey down from Denver : but was more fortunate than the hapless people who started the day before him, for they broke down three miles north of Sloan's ]\Iill on the Divide, and were twenty-four hours get- ting those three miles. The Saturday train caught them up at Sloan's Mill, and they joined company, every man turning out and digging in the snow for four hours ; by which means, and by driving the engine against the snow full speed, they got through at last. This fall of snow is exceptionally heavy ; and unlike what we usually have here, being soft and wet, like Eastern States or English snow, instead of dry and powdery. With the high wind we have had it drifts badly, and packs into a much closer mass than our usual Western snow. The narrow gauge still holds its own against the broad gauge, and a freight train got through behind the passenger- cars yesterday ; while on the Union and Kansas Pacific Ptailroads no freight has got through for two weeks, and CANONS AND COLD. 83 all tlie passenger trains have come into Denver one to four clays late. There have been two feet of snow for the last week at Denver, ami every one is sleighing who can afford it; while the sleigh-owners are making small fortunes by charging eight to ten dollars an hour. 2d>th. — Yesterday was bright, but horribly cold. The trees by the creek had each twig covered with rime half an inch thick, from a dense fog which had frozen upon them the night before. It was an important day to us ; as the Foun- tain Ditch, i.e. the irrigating ditch by which the water from the Fountain above Colorado Springs, is to be brought down to irrigate the town site at Colorado Springs, was finished. Yesterday the water was turned in, and so we hoped that it was slowly making its way down the ditch last night to- wards us : though, as the ditch is 1 1 1 miles long, having to be carried round hill-sides and over gullies, it will take some time to fill it thoroughly. Just now, however, one of the engineers came in to say that the water had broken through the bank close to one of the flumes (wooden troughs, in which the water is carried over gullies), just by Colorado City, and had run away and made a great lake. M. has sent him up with planks and men to fill in the hole ; so we hope all will be right. How it can have hap- pened we cannot tell. It may be that the frost has shrunk the earth at the joining with the flume ; but some fear that it may have been done out of spite. November 30. — Thanksgiving Day. The snow is gone, and the sun blazing in a cloudless sky. I watched the avalanches falling on Pike's Peak all the morning, and, after each, the cloud of snow-smoke rising, and blowing round the top of the mountain. To-day is such a contrast to the last three days, which have been so bitter we have only left the house for our meals, and then rushed down mufiled up in every wrap we possessed to keep out the wind. 84 SOUTH BY WEST. Yesterday afternoon, as M, and I were sitting in the office, the door opened, and in walked a man followed by a large saffron-coloured bull-dog, called Eattler. This man, whom M. knew very well, is the most thorough specimen of a Western man I have yet seen to speak to. He was dressed in apparently five or six flannel shirts, two undercoats, thick trousers tucked into long boots, a light-blue soldier's great- coat with capes, under which knife, pistol, and powder-flask peeped out, and a slouched felt-hat completed the costume. As I sat listening to his yarns to M., I could have fancied myself reading a chapter of Gatlin. Here was the real thing. A fine-made young fellow about twenty- eight, with bright blue eyes and brown hair and beard, up to anything, from shooting a wolf to riding 240 miles in thirty-six hours to catch a prisoner; yet civil and courteous to me in the extreme. All the time he was here I never heard a single bad word from him, though I saw that he caught himself up short two or three times. It was strange, seeing and hearing with one's own eyes and ears what one has read of since childhood. P. has just been in to get the surveying things. He said it was so cold he could not get the men to go out early this morning. At 8 a.m. it was 9° above zero, and at 10 only 15°. There was a grand dinner at the restaurant in honour of Thanksgiving Day ; but we missed it, M. haviiig to go up to Glen Eyrie on business. I went with him, and as no one was at home at the stable, Mrs. S., who is cooking at a log cabin for the men working on the house, gave us a capital dinner, off tin plates ; and taught me how to make biscuit, which means hot rolls, and slap-jacks, a kind of pancakes which one eats at breakfast and tea, in a little pile, covered with butter and syrup, or honey. December 2. — The " cold snap" has driven large herds of antelopes in from the plains to the shelter of the bluffs, and yesterday, hearing there were some near town, M. and I had CANONS AND COLD. 85 out the ambulance with the mules, and drove off in search of them, armed with a revolver. We had not gone more than a mile and a half west of the town site when we saw a herd in a hollow to the right of the road. M. got out and crept away after the antelope, telling me to drive slowly after him. There were ahout twenty-three, and when we had crossed the hollow and got to the top of the next rise, we saw an immense herd of some hundreds a mile west. I watched M. along the crest of the hill, the antelope mean- while running round below him out of sight, when suddenly he stopped. Piff, piff, piff went the pistol, and I drove on to him. No luck, alas ! as Butler, the negro at the office, had loaded the revolver, and carefully put in half charges ; so every shot fell short. We drove after them, and M. got three more long shots from the waggon, but to no purpose. In the evening we drew up a sketch of the constitution and bye-laws for the " Fountain Society of Natural Science." We keep the list of members in the office, and the number is increasing every day, as every one who comes in is im- mediately attacked for a subscription, |3 giving a yearly membership, or $20 a life membership. This morning I got up at 5.30, just as the eastern hori- zon grew crimson over the plains before sunrise, lit the stove, heated some water, and cooked two cups of " Ram- ornie ;" by seven o'clock we were off with Mr. de C. in the waggon to try after antelope again ; and I tried to cure my uncontrollable dislike of fire-arms by keeping one of the rifles on my knee till it was wanted. We fell in with two herds in the same place as yester- day : but our luck was as bad as ever, for so many parties of shooters were out after them, that we could not get within range. We drove on the bluffs in hope of smaller game, and Mr. de C. got a " cotton tail" rabbit {Lqms Artemisia:), and we looked in vain in the bushes for prairie chicken. But we got what quite repaid us for the want of sport — a magnifi- 1 86 SOUTH BY WEST. cent view of the moimtains to the south, which at the town are hidden by Cheyenne Mountain. Across long stretches of plain we saw the Greenhorn jutting out from the main chain, with the Spanish Peaks sticking up blue and golden beyond it, and in the furthest distance the Eaton Moun- tains, over Maxwells, two hundred miles away. The antelopes are so starved this winter that they are coming in by thousands off the plains all along the base of the mountains. At Greeley, the colony town north of Denver, they come among the houses and get shot from the windows. A herd of forty was crowded in a field, and the Greeleyites went out and surrounding it shot them all down, poor little things ! They are so pretty, it seems cruel to kill them in this unsportsmanlike manner. On the 5th a large party of railroad officials and visitors came down to the Springs, and we spent two days showing them the sights of the country, the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Manitou, etc. The weather was perfect for sight-seeing, and the evening so mild that we sat at Mani- tou with doors open to the porch, and walked up and down outside without hats or jackets. AVliile our visitors were down our plans for the winter underwent a considerable change. Important business requiring General P.'s presence in Mexico, he and Mrs. P. asked me to join them in January or February, in a journey via San Francisco and the Pacific to the city of Mexico ; thence to Vera Cruz and New Orleans, and so to New York ; while M. and some engineers received orders at the same time to be ready at any moment to start for the same point overland. CHAPTEE VI. MONUMENT PAKE. Expedition to Monument Park — A cheap dinnei- — The monuments — A rough road — School-keeping a failure — Locating the skating-pond — Snow-birds — A second Monument Park — The southern mountains — " Over the Eatons." December 10. — All the time I have been here, I have never yet seen one of the strangest of the many strange sights in Colorado. So this morning, the weather being fine, with hot sun and no wind, my brother M. got a " buggy" and a good horse, and we started for " Monument Park." About twelve miles north of the to^\^l are a set of bluffs, the beginning of the Divide, running out eastward from the mountains some twenty miles into the plains ; and forming a series of grass valleys, or " parks," as they are called in the West. The largest of these has all along its northern side innumerable groups of sandstone rock, worn by weather and water into the strangest forms, and not inajipropriately called monuments. The lower part of the monuments is of light yellow sandstone conglomerate, capped with a harder sandstone, coloured dark lirown by the presence of a good deal of iron. A wave of upheaval seems to have run from south to north and cracked the hard sandstone pan, letting in the influences of weather to the softer conglomerate below, till the whole has been eaten away, save these isolated pillars. A similar wave seems to have formed the bluffs among 88 SOUTH BY WEST. which they lie. The northern sides slope smoothly down, covered with grass, into the Parks ; while their southern sides are rocky, with pines growing on them, and the strata seem turned back and set on edge. We crossed the Monument creek about four miles above town. How we did cross I do not know, as the bed of the creek had changed, and the wooden levee at the ford was now of no use. The stream was also covered with ice, all but a couple of yards in the centre. With some per- suasion the horse plunged into the ice, and dragged us up a perpendicular bank on the other side. But this was a trifle to what was coming. We followed up a newly made trail through the brushwood, not cut, but only run through by the passage of a waggon or two, which led us at last up a gulch under the railway. It was a horrid place ; just room to squeeze under the trestle bridge, with the wheel on one side three feet higher than the other ; a careless driver could not have got through without an upset. We then came to a good road, and trotted away across plains between the bluffs, covered with Spanish bayonet and burrowed with prairie-dog towns. We drove along, skirting the bluffs for eight miles or so, with the mountains on our left ; till turning in through a sort of pass, through rocks which seemed full of iron, we found ourselves in a " park." Through this we drove on three or four miles, till we came i MONUMENT PARK. 89 to the railway-crossing at Monument creek, and there stopped at a very nice roadside boarding-house called " Teachouts," where w^e put up the horse, and went in for dinner. It is kept by a charming old lady and her son. She looks thoroughly English ; though she is, I believe, an American ; like an ideal farmer's wife, in neat dress, snowy cap, and apron, and with that indescribable air of comfort about her which belongs to an old-fashioned farm-house kitchen. Two ladies were stay- ing there, who had come out with their sick husbands in search of health in this pure mountain air. One of them had made a really line collection of minerals and cry^stals during the months she had spent out here. She took me up to her room to show me her treasure, and gave me several speci- mens of smoky quartz, satin spar, and white chalcedony. One crystal of smoky quartz which she found not far from here was one of the finest I have ever seen ; nearly a foot long, and quite perfect. We had a capital dinner, cooked by a German maid, — a kind of meat pie with a bread-crust, potatoes, bread, pickled cabbage or " cold slaw " as it is called here, and apple tart. The whole cost of our dinner and the feed for our horse was 1 dollar 25 cents — quite astonishing in this land of high prices. After saying good-bye to our new friends, and begging them to call on us at Colorado Springs, we turned up towards the park. Monument Park is a large glade about two miles long, running from east to west; the end of the glade being filled up with the blue and red walls of the foot-hills covered with pine-trees, which rise about 3000 feet above the valley. The south-western slopes of the l)lufrs are covered with the Monument rocks, which, at first sight, strike one as irre- sistibly absurd. They are of every height and size, from the great giant thirty feet high, to the pigmy of twelve inches ; sometimes they stand alone ; sometimes in groups of twenty or more. No two are alike, and each year they change their shape ; as 90 SOUTH BY WEST. wind, snow, frost, and rain go on with the work of destruc- tion, with which for ages they have been moulding this group, as if over some set of Titanic graves. We drove along to the end of the Park, and turned up over the southern bluffs, which, as far as I can see, have few if any monuments on them. The road or track was so bad here that M. made me walk up, as he expected the buggy to upset. The sun was so intensely hot that I was nearly The Moiiaiuent Rocks. smothered going up-hill in my sealskin, though we were at least 7000 feet above the sea. At the top I looked in vain for a road down. There was positively none ; and to my amazement I saw M. deliberately turn the horse right down the hillside, which was at an angle, I should think, of 35°, and covered with stones. I could hardly keep my feet in some places, and how the horse got dowai I cannot tell : but he crept along with the straight shafts of the buggy 4 MONUMENT PARK. 91 right over his ears, and by dint of careful driving and patience arrived safely at the bottom. We saved nearly four miles, and drove home by Glen Eyrie, stopping to " prospect " on a little creek, where we found good indications of coal, plenty of what is here called "kidney iron," some imbedded in sandstone, some lying loose, and M. found some fossil shells. "Colorado Springs, December 20, 1871. "Deak * * *,— Since I last wrote I have been trying a new occupation, and have made a gTeat failure in it. I have been keeping school for two days ! ' " I got a telegram last Monday from the P.'s, who are in Denver, to say they were detained ; so I went up to the school, intending to send the children home. But when I got there I found more than twenty children assembled out- side in the snow ; and they were so anxious to have school that at last I consented to stop and teach them myself The door was locked : so I made two of the bigger boys get in through a window, and following them in nnfastened the door ; and we soon lit the stove and set to work. They were of all ages, from five to fifteen, so that it was rather a difficult matter to keep them all at work at once. How- ever, as I was a novelty, and as we only worked till twelve, they were very good, and got on capitally. Next day, how- ever, was a very different matter, I went up again ; but found that some of the boys were evidently determined to try how naughty they could be. They threw things at tlie girls ; refused to do their work ; and when I found one pretty little girl in floods of tears, and asked what was the matter, she sobbed out, ' They call my hair heaver tails! I could hardly help laughing at such a thoroughly Western form of insult : but I found that ' young America' was a good deal too strong for the ' English school-marm ;' and after shutting one of the chief offenders in a room by himself for an hour, 92 SOUTH BY WEST. which a little quelled the disturbance, I was delighted when twelve o'clock came ; and sent my young tormentors home with a tremendous scolding. " We went out on Thursday to the great gully behind the town, with the chief engineer, to ' locate ' a skating-pond for the use of the colonists. We found a capital place, where, with very little trouble in making a dam, we can get 700 feet by 130. The water will be turned into it from the Fountain Ditch, which we hope will soon be full : but the heavy frosts which came just as it was finished have cracked the banks in so many places, that there have Been constant leaks all along ; and the engineers have been up nearly every day stopping them. " I have got seven snow-birds and a bunting {Junco cani- ceps) in my room now. They fly against the telegraph-wires in the strong wind ; or some of the numberless hawks and buzzards which abound here hurt them ; and we find them lying dead on the ground in hundreds. All that I have got have been hurt or benumbed ; and are now quite tame, and will feed from my hand. " When it snows, they come in immense flocks of many thousands ; and disappear again as soon as the snow melts. They must be quite tired, poor little things, of these constant changes. One week it is so hot one cannot bear a jacket in the daytime, and the next week it is freezing. But it is a glorious climate ; and I am gaining weight and strength every week. I never was in a place where one so enjoys the mere fact of living. " We had a glorious ride last week over the plains, in search of antelope, to the bluffs about five miles from town ; and riding up between two bluffs found ourselves in a valley full of monuments, like those in Monument Park. It was quite a discovery, as no one had heard of their existence before. If there is any water there it will be a charming site for a house some day, as the glade is much prettier than Menu- MONUMENT PARK. 93 nient Park itself; and the views between the bluffs, of moim- tain aud plain, are magnificent. " Whenever I get out on the plains and look southward to those endless mountain-ranges which stretch away into New Mexico till they are hidden by the roundness of the earth, I am seized with a longing to go south and see them. But the stage-journey is enough to deter any one from going who is not absolutely forced to go. ]\Iy desire, however, was not thoroughly cured till M. gave me an account of a night- journey he made across the Eatons. I have since got him to write it down for your amusement at home ; and I think it will give you as good an idea of the difficulties of winter travel out here, without railroads, as you could have, unless you came and tried it. OVER THE RATONS. " We 're going to have rough Avork over the mountain to-night," I said to Dutch Sam, the messenger of the S. 0. M. (Southern Overland Mail), at the Eed Eiver Station, where we stopped for supper on a night in the end of December 1870. "Who takes us over?" "Frank Blue's turn to -night,. I think. — Supper's ready." In I bundle, and find Frank stretching himself, after a three hours' snooze, preparatory to driving forty miles on a bitter winter night over the roughest piece of road in Western America. "Hullo, where are you coming from ? AYlio 's aboard ?" " Nobody but me." " Bully for you ! Where 's your bottle ?" A " square drink" opens his eyes a little, and as we dis- cuss some steaming beef-steaks he gives us the pleasant news that " the other side" (the north side of the mountain) was sloppy with half-melted snow as he came over in the morning, and that it is probably now a sheet of ice. 94 SOUTH BY WEST. " However," he adds, " as there 's nobody but you aboard, don't mucli matter if we do go over." On which I thanked him, and asked him how long ago it was since he had overturned, so as to calculate the chances against his doing so to-night. " Well," he said, " Old went up with me last night, and I told him the mules w^anted roughing. He said they didn't, so just to show him they did, I piled the leaders into a heap just above Dick Wooten's there, and I guess from the row the insides. Old among 'em — kicked up, he '11 believe me the next time." " But where on earth did you go ?" I asked. " Oh," he said, " I waited till I got a snow-bank kinder handy, pulled on my near leader, slipped my brake, bucked myself into the snow-bank, and let the old shandrydan rip." " Well," said I, " thank goodness I am not one of the Company's officers !" After another long drink we muffle up, and I jump on to the box-seat beside Frank, wdiile Sam turns inside for a snooze. In five seconds more the helpers swing the leaders into their place, and with a tremendous plunge that threatens to burst every piece of tackle about them, the four mules "lay themselves down" and race away, their ears laid back along their necks, their tails tight down to their quarter, bucking and squealing along the only piece of level this side of the mountains. We are over it in a minute, and in and out of the dry watercourse with a lurch that makes me grip the handrail, the mules steadying on the furtlier side, where begins the steady pull up the first ascent. What a gorgeous Mdld scene it is ! In front the range rises in a black weird wall, and the full moon streams down on the white broken crags, making them look like the battlements of old ruined castles ; and across the road the pines shed a ghastly shadow, setting off still more brightly MONUMENT PARK. 95 the moonlight on beyond. And now we are in tlie canon itself, and the crags beetle a thousand feet high on either side, save where here and there a long steep slope runs up far into some snow-covered glen. I express a hope that the other side is as clear as this one, as up to the present the road has been perfectly clear of snow ; and Erank says that all is dry up to the summit, but from that down we shall catch it. We trot on in silence for the next half-mile, crossing and re-crossing the stream several times, till we open a little glade, at the further side of which we see the camp-fires of a Mexican bullock-train, whose ten waggons are drawn up in a semicircle against the rock, forming an enclosure to keep the cattle from roaming. The fires shed a warm kindly blaze round, lighting up the dark pine stems, and playing on the little white points of rock at the opposite side of the canon. The team object strongly to passing them : but Frank's heavy whip soon reassures Kitty, one of the leaders, who squeals and bucks each time the thong cracks across her quarter. As we lose the fire we plunge again into the dark- ness of the canon, and steady the team as we near tlie Devil's Gate, so called from two enormous rocks throuoh which the water-course has worn a channel only just wide enough for a waggon to get through, and which towei over our heads to some 200 or 300 feet high. It is a wild place, and was famed in old times for desperate Indian encounters. From this up to the summit we have better froin. Tfl C) CO' O ^ CO -^ t^ CO CO C5 LO o »o -o m o CO CO o o ^ o (>1 C^ CI (N CI CI C^) (N (H 0000 t-COt^'.OOGi0 01rtiOO -t< o ^ o oj -f t- t-- CO [^ 01 OtOt^Ot-iOOCOt^Ot— Calorific Power. I. O O lO Ol OS GO ■<*< Ol O C» GO OiQi— lOit^O-HOlCOcOCO C5 .p oooo-^cbcocbcbib-*-^ ^H i-H t-H 1 — 1 Suli.lnir. OC1-H00 C5 p 01 p r- 01 ■*! p ip : : i;- Hydrogen. a)Tt CO 1^ i^ 01 10 CO CO lO CO CO CO t- No. rtdOO"0000^ I-H (-H g ^0 El "b p w CO D c M ^ i s •^ ^ M 1 2; « ker Co., ock Coal, < Q cq W t~^ GO oi i-i i-i i-i ;^ « 55 D :^ »\ ■> ~ :; ~ CO « be i3 '^ S *1 1 »» 1— r r^ >> .— . 03 C3 -^ a ^ ^ a bo Q ^ S «^ ^1 S -^ rt w rH (M CO -* ITS CO 6 !z; COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. U3 Enough has been said to show that the territory of Colorado has no lack of natural attractions for those who go " out West " with a view to making money. For the ordin- ary traveller, searching either for health or amusement, it is no less attractive. The chmate, as I have already said, is bracing and healthy, and so dry, that, even in winter, one does not feel the cold nearly so severely as at a higher temperature and lower altitude. For invalids suffering from asthma or con- sumption, if the latter disease is not too far advanced, the air works wonders ; and they are ordered now to Colorado from the Eastern States, and even from Canada, as English people are sent to Cannes or ISIadeira. One invalid whom I happened to know, came out in the summer of 1871 apparently dying of consumption, obliged to be moved in an invalid carriage. In the spring of 1872 we wished him good sport as he started on foot for a week's shooting and camping in the mountains ! To the botanist and geologist there is an endless field of interest in the flowers on the plains and the rocks in the hills ; while even a member of the Alpine Club could hardly despise the scarcely-explored wonders of the Snowy Eange. One of the members of Professor Hayden's Survey thus describes the view from the summit of Mount Lincoln, in the spring of 1873 : — "AYe reckoned carefully, and estimated that we had in view more than one hundred peaks, which would not fall below 13,000 feet, and at least fifty of 14,000. The two great connected ranges which were most conspicuous were the Sierra Madre to tlie west, beyond the Arkansas Valley, and the Blue Eiver range to the north, a continuation of that upon which we were, but bending around westward enough to bring a great line of rugged peaks against the sky. In the Sierra ]\Iadre lie two prominent summits, named Yale 144 SOUTH BY "WEST. and Harvard by Professor J. D. Whitney, in his explora- tions here four years ago ; and the ridge finishes abruptly at the north with the highest peak of all, estimated by us at 15,000 feet, and named the Holy Cross, from the two immense snow banks intersecting each other conspicuously on its side, as seen from Grey and Evans, farther north than this. . . . " Eumours of surpassing heights attach themselves to the name of the Holy Cross and to Sopris Peak ; the explora- tions of this summer will go far toward settling what is after all the highest summit in Colorado, and in the whole United States. As viewed from Grey, Evans, and Lincoln, the palm belongs to the great mountains far beyond the Sierra Madre, and near to one another ; one a ridge with a hump upon it, and the whole covered with unbroken snow, like an Alp ; the other a mass ending in a perfectly conical black peak. By levelling and estimate of distance, we believe those summits to rise above 16,000 feet. We are making off in that direction. " But to return to Mount Lincoln. Almost below it lies the Hoosier Pass, a low ridge across the valley up which we had come, perhaps of moraine origin, separating the affluents of the two great oceans, the Platte, leading to the Gulf of Mexico, the Blue, to the Gulf of California. Indeed, on the next mountain are head branches of the Platte, the Blue, and the Arkansas, and it has been thence very suitably named Treaique. We see the Platte tumbling down the precipice just opposite, out of an always frozen lake. On this side, the famous mountains Grey and Evans are hardly conspicuous among a host of their equals ; Long's is almost hidden by the narrow ridge. South-east\vard the Park makes a marked and welcome variety in the scene, and beyond it the great isolated mountain of Pike's Peak is very distinct and striking. On the whole this mountain summit commands points in a region of country nearly or quite 25,000 square miles in extent." COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND TROGRESS. 145 And now let us see what sort of population is springing up in this vast Territory, larger than all Great Britain. Some foreigners, and a good many strangers from the Eastern States, cause no small amusement to the inhabitants of Colorado by the stupendous preparations they make before coming West to insure their personal safety. " Among their last acts," says an indignant "Westerner, " before leaving the States, is the purchase of a pair of Colt's navies, and at least one of Bowie's brightest blades. A Sharp's carbine further contributes towards the completion of the military outfit, while their trunks and valises fairly groan with multitudin- ous packages of cartridges and fixed ammunition The people who thus make walking arsenals of them- selves and infernal machines of their luggage, in view of a Western trip, only succeed in making themselves ridiculous, and in putting themselves to a vast amount of expense and anxiety, without rhyme or reason." " Ah ! but," says some one, " there are the Indians ! " True, there are Indians : but there are many more white men ; and the Indians are quite wise enough to know by this time, that the less trouble they give the better for themselves. The Utes, who are the Indians most largely spread over Colorado, are now perfectly peaceable; and the Cheyennes dare not venture into the thickly settled belt along the base of the Eocky Mountains. But let us take this same thickly-settled belt, from Den- ver southwards, and mark its progress in the last fifteen years. In 1858, a little knot of some half-dozen enterprising men arrived at the mouth of Cherry Creek, attracted across the plains by the news of the gold discoveries at the base of Pike's Peak. Here they decided to "locate" themselves; and Mr. A. J. Williams, now one of the leading citizens of Denver, built the first store in Auraria, now West Denver. He, with General Larimer and a few others, soon afterwards K 146 SOUTH BY WEST. crossed Cherry Creek, and surveyed and laid out a new town, which they named after the then Governor of Kansas, — General Denver. On the 1st of January 1871 the Census returns for this city gave 5000 inhabitants ; and on the 1st of January 1872, 10,000 inhabitants ; showing that in one year the population had doubled. Now in 1873 its population is between 15,000 and 20,000. In the beginning of 1870 the whistle of an engine had never been heard in Denver. In March 1872 five railroads were running out of it, and several more were projected. And this is no mushroom growth. The progress of Den- ver, though rapid, is substantial ; and it has already taken its place as the most important commercial city between Kansas and Utah. In 1870, the Kansas Pacific Eailroad being finished to Denver, some of its most influential officers and promoters, struck with the future importance of the belt of country down the eastern base of the Eocky Mountains, conceived a scheme for developing it by making a line of railroad, which, running from north to south, should connect all the great Transcontinental lines, to wit, the Kansas Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, and the Texas Pacific, and also tap the vast resources of the mountain chain along which it should run. This line was incorporated under the name of the Denver and Ptio Grande Itailway ; to commence at Denver, having as its ultimate point El Paso del Norte, on the frontier of Mexico. Besides being the first north and south road in this section, it possessed an extreme interest for all railroad men, being the first narrow-gauge road in the States, its projectors having decided upon a 3 feet gauge in place- of the usual 4 feet 8,^ inches of the other railways. The gradin