THE NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

Otago Witness, Issue 1855, 10 June 1887, Page 11

THE NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

S'OTES ON A SIX MONTHS' HOLIDAY TOUR ROUND THE" WORLD.

(( vßy v By W. M'H.)

No. X.

Brand Canon of the Arkansas— Eoyal GorgeCanyon City-Pikes Peak— Garden of the Gods -Denver, the " Queen City of the Plains"-Prairies of the "West -lowa a "Prohibition" State-The "Father of Waters."

Leaving Salida at 5 p.m., we are barely ff ell under weigh when much whistling and jnorting ahead, and the sudden stoppage of our train proclaim something amiss. Presently we learn that a waterspout this morning causod a "wash out" on the hillside, which has buried 100 yards of our line under a foot or more of debris, and that a preceding goods train fortunately discovered the fault just in time to gave itself and warn us. We put back to Salida rather regretfully, as there is absolutely nothing to see but a hastily-built, much-salooned mining camp of the usual type, spread out thin on a bare hillside. After a few hours' detention, spent principally in overhauling and examining ft long line of trucks loaded up with lead ore in route to the smelting furnace, we renew our journey, and follow down the banks of the Arkansas river, but the gathering shades of evening preclude much sight seeing and drive us to the interior of the cars to snooze away the time until we shall reach the

" Grand Canon of the Arkansas," one of the •• sights" of our scenic route. We had been specially grieved at the loss of time over the " wash out," knowing the delay would rob us of the view of this canyon by daylight, but the delay proves a blessing in disguise. We saw the Black Canon of the Gunnison lit up— so far as it was possible to light up such a place — by the glare of the midday sub, we now see the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, and plunge through sombre shadows of the "Royal Gorge" by the weird light of a brilliant moon. The Arkansas canyon is not so long as that of the Gunnison, being only some three or four miles in length, while the Black Canon is seven, nor are the walls of the former quite so high, nevertheless, the scenery is grandly impressive, and the moonlit chasm in alMts varying lights and shades, its glistening peaks and gloomy caverns, its winding curves and frowning precipices, its hushed solitudes, and roaring torrents is a sight once seen never to be forgotten. A railway folder describes the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, the narrowest portion of which is known as

The " ltoyal Gorge."

Thus: "When first examined it seemed impossible that a railway could ever be constructed through this stupendous canon to Leadville and the West. There was scarcely room for the river alone, and granite ledges blocked the path with their mighty bulk. In time, however, these obstructions were blasted away, a road-bed closely following the contour e£ the cliffs was made, and to-day the canon is a well-used thoroughfare. But its grandeur still remains. After entering its depth, the train moves slowly along the side of the Arkansas, and around projecting shoulders of darkhueu granite, deeper and deeper into the heart of the range. Trie crested crags grow higher, the river madly foams along its rocky bed, and anon the way becomes a mere fissure through the heights. Far above the road the sky forms a deep, blue arch of light ; but in the gorge hang dark and sombre shades which the sun's rays have never penetrated. The place is a measureless gulf of air with solid walls on either side. Here the granite cliffs are 1000 ft high, smooth and unbroken by tree or shrub ; and there a pinnacle soars skyward for thrice that distance. No flowers grow, and the birds care not to penetrate the the solitudes. The river, sombre and swift, breaks the awful stillness with its roar. Soon the cleft becomes more narrow, tho treeless cliffs higher, the river closer confined, and where a long iron bridge hangs suspended from the smooth walls the grandest portion of the canon is reached. Man becomes dwarfed and dumb in the sublime scene, and

Nature exhibits the power she possesses. The crags menacingly rear their heads above the daring intruders, and the place is like the entrance to some infernal region." At the " Royal Gorge " above mentioned the sides of the canon approach so closely that the foaming waters run from wall to wall, and the railway track is carried along on a sort of hangiug bridge suspended from the rocky walls above. Emerging from the Grand Canon we bid a final farewell to the Rocky Mountains, and indeed to all other mountains ; henceforth our w.iy lies entirely over the plains with a thousand miles of treeless, billowy, prairie-land to start

with. Running into Canyon city we pass quite close to an extensive pile of buildings, the high, white walls of which, in the weird light of the now waning moon, gleam through the shadows .like Eastern temple or marble-domed Mosque. . Coming from out of the Cimmerian darkness and gloom of the canon and lighting suddenly and unexpectedly upon this gleaming pile of white marble its beauty is exceedingly captivating, and under the impression that it is the costly freak of some millionaire who thus determines, in 'an out-of-the-way corner, to equal, if not surpass, Oriental magnificence, I am proceeding to compose a suitable " note " for the occasion when I learn with disgust that the place is the State prison and county reformatory ! Pausing only at Canyon city and Pueblo to quench the consuming thirst of our panting engine, we bowl along for a hundred and odd miles, skirting the base of the Rocky Mountains in route. Plunging 'through the mighty shadows of " Pikes peak," 15,000 ft high, We pass the entrance to " Manitou Park" and the " Garden of the Gods," and finally, early in the morning, draw up in the Palatial Union Depot (said to be one of the finest in America) at Denver,

" The Queen City of the Plains,"

and the capital of $he State of Colorado, 1605 miles from San Francisco. Here we spend a very enjoyable hour or two stretching our legs and viewing the principal buildings of the city ; among the many handsome edifijes none please the eye better than the courthouse, an ornate building standing in the centre of a large, beautifully-kept lawn which shows it off to perfection. These lawns are rather an "institution" in America, the majority of the public buildings being set off with fimoothly-cut, trimly-kept, verdant lawns, which — always Pleasing to the eye— are doubly precious in the neart of a dusty city, and give an* air of taste nd refinement much to be desiderated in the

surroundings of the public buildings of New Zealand.

Denver is one of the lightning built cities of America, hardly any of the principal buildings bearing an earlier date than 1880, which was about the time it first began to " boom." In 1870 the population was under 5000, 10 years later it was 35,000, while at the present time it is estimated to exceed 65,000 gouls, the population of the State being some 200,000. Colorado is famed for the salubrity of its climate, and Denver claims to be one of the healthiest cities in the world. It lies about a dozen miles from the base of the Colorado or "front" range of the Rockies, and has an altitude of 5197 ft. Already an important business centre, and situated in the midst of limitless prairies and boundless farm lands, and within easy access of the thousand and one busy mining camps of the Rocky Mountains, Denver is bound to become one of the largest and most important cities of the West. The city is handsomely laid out, and second only to Salt Lake City for its rows of grateful, shade-giving trees, quite a remarkable feature in so young a city. Colorado being pre-eminently rich in mineral wealth of all kinds no opportunity is lost of advertising her wares and a large trade in specimens of the various ores or nicknacks of all kinds manufactured from rough quartz or from polished agate and other precious stones, is carried on. At Denver several shops are entirely devoted to this line of business, and at one of them I purchase for 50cent a small cabinet of specimens neatly got up and labelled and accompanied with a printed explanatory catalogue, a complete and interesting memento of I Colorado ores.

Shortly after 9 a.m. we again take wing, and this time by the" Burlington aud Quincy " line, which claims to have some 5000 miles of steel tracks in use, and to be one of the best appointed lines in the country, and certainly the change from the narrow to the broad guage is most agreeable. Although transferred to a new line of cars, our party fortunately still remains almost intact. By " party " I mean the carriage companions who have journeyed pleasantly together, right away from Salt Lake City, 700 odd miles, and who now propose travelling for 500 miles more, some of us, indeed, for 1000 miles, right through to the next break at Chicago. A brief description of some of the party thus promiscuously thrown together may not be amiss. First then there is a bright, silver-haired, vivacious old lady from Boston, the intellectual " hub " of the universe, who is travelling with, and for the benefit of her son a delicate, hollow-eyed, soft-mannered youth of one and twenty. Having seen a good deal of the States, and travelled through the greater part of England, both mother and son have a fund of useful and interesting information which they pleasantly place at our disposal. Secondly, there are two elderly sisters, also partly health-seeking, and on the search for which they have wandered about a good deal in Southern California and Mexico during the last 12 months. Having been captivated by the beauties of Los Angeles and the delicious climate of Southern California they have finally determined to make that their future home, and are returning to Illinois to settle up their affairs before " flitting." As showing how Los Angeles is "booming" to the fore, the house property these ladies purchased six months ago for 800dol is now worth 1500dol in open market. Being experienced travellers their travelling accessories are marvels of neatness and adaptibility, the envy and admiration of the carriage. With the aid of a small spirit lamp, hung from the window-sill between their two reversible seats, they make tea, boil eggs, toast bread, heat pastry, &c, &c, all the while reading, knitting, and chatting as comfortably as by their own fireside ! The principal male character in our party is my vis-a-vis, a G.A.R. veteran returning home; he is an engineer by profession, and probably the most tireless talker out of Congress. It is

not too much to say that from Salt Lake to Lincoln city, where he left us, a thousand miles or more, his tongue never rested for 10 consecutive minutes, except when he slept. By long-continued practice he could even bolt a " squar meal " and maintain a vigorous argument at one and the same time !— not that he was a bore, far from it. We could ill have spared his yarns of the war and his Yankee blow ; and when on one occasion we were favoured with a three hours' visit from a flying " drummer," also

a born orator, the meeting of these gifted talkers was immense! Bobh were genuine Yanks, and their strong nasal twang, goodhumoured but sarcastic chaff, and Mark Twain phraseology, kept the carriage in roars of laughter. Until I had heard the " drummer " "open out," much of Twain's mining phraseology seemed but a humorous exaggeration or ludicrous creation of his own brain, but the inimitable manner in which our visitor carried

on a two hours' all-round fusillade, with aramunition almost entirely composed of aposite slang expressions, was worthy of "Buffalo Bill," "Commache Jim," or the swaggering bully of " Poker Flat." On leaving Denver our way lies over the immense

Prairies of the West,

a boundless, treeless, unoccupied territory, unoccupied, that is' by man.but where thousands and tens of thousands of sleek, well-conditioned cattle browse along the line, and occasional herds of fleet-footed antelopes can be seen in the distance' These vast cattle grounds' of Colorado, Texas, Nabraska, and Kansas, extend from the Missouri to the Rockies, and stretch north and south for more than a thousand miles. Here the number of a ranchman's herd is limited only by the length of his purse, and restricted solely by the bounds of his own ambition. The grazing right is free to all, and so long as you shepherd your own flocks and herds, or hire " cowboys" to do so for you, there are no restrictions whatever on the numbers you may keep. Soon we cross the borders of Colorado, and for the next 300 or 400 miles skirt the boundary line which divides (on paper) the States of Nebraska and Kansas. All day we bowl along without let or hindrance, over rolling prairie land, green with succulent pasturage and ypllow with waving sunflowers, nothing occurring to disturb the even tenor of our way. Late at night we change cars at Red Cloud, in the Republican Valley, where numerous remains of Mammoth Mastodons and other extinct animals have been found. Next morning we make a brief halt opposite the spires and steeples of Lincoln city, the capital of Nebraska, a large and important railway and agricultural centre of about 25,000 inhabitants. Three hours more and we cross the Missouri river at Plattsmouth, 25 miles below Omaha, but after hearing so much of the " mighty " Missouri, its murky waters are somewhat disappointing. After crossing the river we find ourselves in the State of lowa, which has a population of 2,000,000 souls, and the country, which during the last 200 miles or so has gradually been filling up, is now fairly well occupied, settlements are becoming closer, towns more frequent. By-and-bye we call a halt at Creston, where each and all of the 10,000

inhabitants have arrayed themselves in their Sunday clothes and are holding high holiday to welcome the returning grand army veterans, and at the railway station we have the usual "reception," listen to the stereotyped bursts of frenzied eloquence, and thereafter procession around with beating drums and flying banners.

lowa being one of the slowly, but surely, increasing number of

" Prohibition " States. I should have been glad of the opportunity of visiting " Colfax Springs," and the capital, Dcs Moines, and spending a day or two among some of the larger towns to study the effects of the prohibitory liquor law as administered in America. Time, however, does not admit of this and Dcs Moines lying some distance northward of our route we are not favoured with even a glimpse of it nor yet of "Colfax Springs," the " Saratoga of the West," which lies within a few miles of the capital, which, I am informed, is a handsomelybuilt prosperous city, its capitol and other public buildings being models of architectural skill. Without, therefore, claiming to write authoritatively in the matter and speaking only of what I do see on my flying trip across the state, lowa seems exceedingly content, and smilingly prosperous, and the " interference " with the "liberty of the subject " — the shibboleth of the anti-prohibitionists — has left no conspicuous marks of serfdom on the people. They speak and act as if they knew not the " galling chains that bound them," and the holiday throng at Creston — embracing all classes— are evidently having a " high old time " of it without the aid of " brandy cocktails " and " gin-slings>," " sudden deaths" and "corpse-revivers" elsewhere considered absolutely indispensable. Indeed it is rather a novel and pleasing experience for a New Zealander to witness so Targe a holiday gathering where there are no booths for the sale of "doctored" Glenlivet and absolutely no bars dispensing " manufactured " " three star," and to rub shoulders with so many thousand pleasure-seekers without once meeting the bibulous weeping driveller or hilarious roysterer

'ull of whisky and bad language,

At Ottumwa, a long, rather dingy, manufacturing town on the banks of the Dcs Moines river, we halt for tea ; then on to Burlington city, where, late at night, we strike the majestic Mississippi, and cross the " Father of Waters " on a magnificent iron bridge, about a mile in length. Burlington is built on an amphitheatre of wooded hills, and in daylight the survey around is said to be most enchanting. Although late, we obtain a splendid view from the bridge as the train moves slowly across ; the brilliant stars are reflected in the calm, placid bosom of the noble river, and the refulgent moon throws a glitter on the water and lurking shadows along the picturesque banks. Although many hundred — probably a thousand — miles above the confluence of the Missouri and Ohio, the volume of the Mississippi even here is stupendous. A few miles further up the river, at Rock Island, is situated the United States Government Arsenal, &c., andthe locality is further celebrated as the historic spot where General Scott concluded his treaty with the famous Indian chief, " Black Hawk," whereby a large slice of the country now known as lowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin was ceded to the United States.