Silverland | Page 8

language levelled at them of late. There is, of course, the excuse of the exceptional season; but this will scarce suffice. The clemency of nine winters, gave the authorities no right to reckon on perpetual immunity; and the troubles that have crushed them ought to have been foreseen when the first sleeper was laid. So say their accusers, with no mean show of truth.
It was 'shapen in wickedness,' this unlucky line; for its chief promoters were deep in a certain Credit Mobilier, which, after a brief, unhealthy blaze, flickered out with an ill-savour of dishonesty. So, as the vast subsidies poured in forty-five millions from government, besides land grants, and large monies raised on bonds they flowed through the hands of one Direction into the coffers of the other, in the guise of accommodating contracts. Then, naturally, came the question, how to accomplish the absolutely necessary work at the least cost, preserving a fair outward seeming.
A rail over the Eocky Mountains.
Hath it not a brave sound, even in these days of engineering Anakim \ Bierstadt's famous picture conjures up a chaos of torrents, cliffs, and canons; and we marvel at his hardihood who first brought level to bear thereon. The great painter is doubtless accurate to a leaf and a line; but his brush was wielded in the inner heart of these hills. Travellers through many lands become familiar with disillusions: yet cannot I recal such an imposture as these same Kocky Mountains, approached by railway from the east. From Omaha to Sherman, is all against the collar; but the rise is so gradual, that there seems no change in the dull champaign, adust or
* Vide Appendix A. hoary according to the season; you are always looking at the same rim of low steep cliffs on the far horizon at the same muddy creeks, weltering through stunted willows. You mount nine thousand feet above sea-level, without encountering as much broken ground as lies round Aldershot; and the grades, with a very few exceptions, would be child's play to a skilful engineer.
The Directors might have defied King Winter, if, at the beginning, they could have hardened their hearts, like their rivals of the Central Pacific. The cost of forty-three miles of nearly continuous sheds, even with timber felled on the spot, rather dwarfs that of the flimsy plank-fences, hardly stiff enough to stop a clever hunter, let alone snow- waves sweeping over scores of miles. An official, high in authority, averred to us that, for less than half a million of dollars, cuttings might be deepened, embankments raised, and bulwarks fortified, so as to make the line comparatively safe. Therefore, to some extent, out of their own mouths these men are judged.
There has been a change of direction of ]ate; and Vanderbilt is said to control the road. Under the iron sceptre of this truculent old despot, much may perchance be amended. When abuses have come to a certain pass, there is much profit in tyranny.
We reached Cheyenne, 500 miles from Omaha, without grave mishap; and, during the mid -day halt, made our first acquaintance with Western jewellery. Some chains and bracelets, of delicate fragile workmanship, would have seemed more in place at Genoa, or in the old Palais Eoyal, than here, on the skirts of the wilderness. But, side by side with these, were ponderous gimmals, on which might fitly have been inscribed
For the Amal, Amalric's son Smid, Troll's son, made me.
The miner, who has made his 'pile,' has grand Gothic tastes, in more ways than one; and likes to see the ruddy metal glitter royally, both on his own person, and on that of his lawful or lawless love. Some of the watches, heavily chased in solid gold, would have outweighed any ship's chronometer. But the chief temptation to us Britishers were the moss-agates quite the loveliest of their kind I have ever seen. The fairy sprays are so perfectly defined, that it is hard to believe real vegetation is not shrined in the crystal. Luckily, the best specimens were unset; so, after much embarrassment of choice, we were able to please our fancies at no ruinous cost.
As we were about to start, a train came in which had been blockaded, for some days, near Sherman. There was scant time to talk: but the Eastwardbound travellers seemed strangely sullen and taciturn. A week later we should not have wondered at such churlishness. There was some sardonic laughter when one of our company asked, in his simplicity "If there was a chance of our getting right through?"
"You'll hear all about it at Laramie," the other conductor shouted through his grimy, unkempt beard. And so we went each our own way.
That night's halt was at Sherman, the very highest point of the Union Pacific line. Our Professor's barometers, carefully collated, made