perfect, others broken by the wind was one great
wreck of a forest monster--a tree rudely snapped asunder by wind or
lightning, about 40 feet from the ground, and stripped of every branch,
so that it looked like a broken column; on its top sat a great vulture
in the well-known attitude of its kind, as motionless as rock, and
apparently meditating on the incongruity of a noisy, vulgar bit of
machinery, with its train of cars, invading such a nook of Nature's
solitudes.

As we proceeded we came upon the succession of Placer gold diggings,
known as the hydraulic mines, which were then for the most part
abandoned, and these brought to my remembrance many similar spots I had
seen in Australia. The _debris_ of the mines had stopped up, or
diverted, or otherwise interfered with the Sacramento River, the Bear
River, and other rivers, to the great detriment of agriculture,
horticulture, stock rearing, etc., whereupon the State Legislature of
California passed an Act to prohibit all interference with the water,
for without water the miners could not wash their dirt, and so had to
abandon the diggings. All around this part, ravine followed ravine, with
beautiful vistas between, affording a continuous luxury of scenic
gratification. Presently we reached what is called by many the grandest
scenery on the American Continent, known as Cape Horn; it is where the
train winds round a mountain side, on a narrow ledge, and at such a
height, that to hold one's hand out of the window would be to hold it
over a sheer precipice of 2,500 feet. The train runs along the ledge or
narrow roadway cut in the face of the mountain rock, and all around is
presented a spectacle of the majesty of Nature, which only such a range
of mountains as the Sierra Nevada could produce.

About 14 miles from Truckee, we reach a station called "Summit," which
lies at an elevation of 7,017 feet, and is the highest point on the
Sierra Nevada Mountains reached by railroads, but the granite peaks rise
up to an altitude of over 10,000 feet. Grizzly bears, and other wild
creatures, find their homes in the recesses of these fastnesses. On
leaving these mountains we make a rapid descent, and in an hour feel
that we are in another country. At Colfax I bought fruit; at Arlington
the temperature was like summer. At Rockling Station I saw some very
fine orange trees, full of splendid fruit. Now we have entered the
fertile plains of North California, and run through cultivated la