Then on thundered the train by the great Salt Lake, one hundred miles
long and forty miles wide, so salt that it buoys you up on its surface
like a feather; then on over the sage-brush desert to Reno, Nevada,
where is the world-renowned Comstock mine, from which over one hundred
millions of dollars' worth of silver has already been taken.
Then we climbed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, around and around in a
circle, shot through a snow shed forty miles long; then lumber chutes
appear many miles in length, through which enormous logs are shot down
by water power from the mountain lake. Four billion feet of lumber are
cut here in a year.
Then on we go past Lake Tahoe, twenty-two miles long, surrounded by
mountains two miles in height; then past Cape Horn, along precipices
down which I threw a stone which fell 2,500 feet into the American
River.
We slide down the mountains to Auburn, California, and find fruit
trees in blossom, grass green, and crops several inches high. A sudden
change in a few minutes from deep snow and severe cold to blossoms and
roses. On we go to Sacramento, surrounded by great ranches with vast
herds of cattle and sheep feeding on the wild grasses; then on to San
Francisco, the Golden Gate, and the unpacified Pacific.
The principal occupation of the street cars in 'Frisco, is climbing
almost perpendicular heights, and then sliding down hill.
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