eak the
monotony. The wheel-marks of the trail to Utah often ran parallel with
the track, and bones of oxen were bleaching in the sun, the remains of
those "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness" on the long and drouthy
journey. The daybreak of to-day (Sunday) found us shivering at Fort
Laramie, a frontier post dismally situated at a height of 7,000 feet.
Another 1,000 feet over gravelly levels brought us to Sherman, the
highest level reached by this railroad. From this point eastward the
streams fall into the Atlantic. The ascent of these apparently level
plateaus is called "crossing the Rocky Mountains," but I have seen
nothing of the range, except two peaks like teeth lying low on the
distant horizon. It became mercilessly cold; some people thought it
snowed, but I only saw rolling billows of fog. Lads passed through the
cars the whole morning, selling newspapers, novels, cacti, lollypops,
pop corn, pea nuts, and ivory ornaments, so that, having lost all
reckoning of the days, I never knew that it was Sunday till the cars
pulled up at the door of the hotel in this detestable place.

[6] The mountains which bound the "valley of the Babbling Waters,"
Utah, afford striking examples of these "knobs" or "buttes."

The surrounding plains were endless and verdureless. The scanty
grasses were long ago turned into sun-cured hay by the fierce summer
heats. There is neither tree nor bush, the sky is grey, the earth
buff, the air blae and windy, and clouds of coarse granitic dust sweep
across the prairie and smother the settlement. Cheyenne is described
as "a God-forsaken, God-forgotten place." That it forgets God is
written on its face. It owes its existence to the railroad, and has
diminished in population, but is a depot for a large amount of the
necessaries of life which are distributed through the scantily settled
districts within distances of 300 miles by "freight wagons," each drawn
by four or six horses or mules, or double that number of oxen. At
times over 100 wagons, with double that number of teamsters, are in
Cheyenne at once. A short time ago it was a perfect pandemonium,
mainly inhabited by rowdies and desperadoes, the scum of advancing
civilization; and murders, stabbings, shooting, and pistol affrays were
at times events of almost hourly occurrence in its drinking dens. But
in the West, when things reach their worst, a sharp and sure remedy is
provided. Those settlers who find the state of matt