o lost
donkeys serenely masticating playing-cards, of which many bushels lay in
a dirty pile. He was then reminded that the animals had been there all
day!

Lovelocks (Nevada) is three hundred and eighty-nine miles from San
Francisco, and its elevation above the sea-level three thousand nine
hundred and seventy-seven feet. It is simply a station, with a few
buildings connected with the Central Pacific Railroad; but is a fine
grazing region, and large herds of cattle are fattened here upon the
rich native grasses. There is quite a settlement of farmers near
Lovelocks. Before the railroad came the pasture lands were renowned
among the emigrants, who recruited their stock after the wearisome
journey across the plains.

Leaving Lovelocks, Captain Glazier soon found himself again on the
barren desert. A side track of the railroad, named White Plains, gave
him rest for the night. The spot is surrounded by a white alkali desert,
covered in places with salt and alkali deposits. Hot Springs is another
station in the midst of the desert, and is so named from the hot springs
whose rising steam can be seen about half a mile from the station.

Hastening forward he reached Desert (Nevada), which he found to be three
hundred and thirty-five miles from San Francisco, and that the place is
rightly named. The winds that sweep the barren plains here, heap the
sand around the scattered sage brush till they resemble huge potato
hills--a most dreary place.

The captain found it quite a relief on reaching Wadsworth (Nevada), a
town of about five hundred souls, and three hundred and twenty-eight
miles from the end of his journey. It has several large stores,
Chinamen's houses, and hotels, in one of the latter of which he found
refreshment and a bed. His route had been for several days across
dreary, monotonous plains, with nothing but black desolation around him.
Another world now opened to his view--a world of beauty, grandeur and
sublimity. Reluctantly leaving this agreeable place, he crossed the
Truckee River, and gazed with delightful sensations upon the trees, the
green meadows, comfortable farm-houses and well-tilled fields of the
ranches, as he rode forward.

He had now crossed the boundary line that divides Nevada from
California, and Truckee was the first place he halted at. This is a
flourishing little city of fifteen hundred inhabitants, one-third of
whom are Chinese, and is two hundred and fifty-nine miles from San
Francisco