Beyond the West: containing an account of two years' travel in the other half of our great continent far beyond the old West, on the plains, in the Rocky mountains, and picturesque parks of Colorado. Also, characteristic features of New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho ... Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and ... California, the end of the West ... the great continental railroad, together with the ... most wonderful natural scenery in the world .../ by George W. Pine.

THE CONTINENTAL RAILROADS.
imagination, start at Omaha, on the Missouri River,
nine hundred and eight feet above tide water, pass ing through the valley of the Platte River, crossing
it once, till they reach the highest summit of the
Bocky Mountains, eight tlhousand four hundred and
twenty-four feet above the ocean. This is the highest point in all the survey; but the rise has been
so gradual, that you can't realize that you are on
the summit of the Continent. You now pass over
what is mostly a desert plateau, four hundred and
twenty-one miles to Echo Canyon, from five thousand
to sever thousand five hundred feet elevation. You
begin to understaled what a desert means. It is a
plateau, once the bottom of an ocean, heaved up by
volcanic agency, while here and there in it is a sharp,
thrusting up of rocks in ridges, looking as if they
belonged to some world worn out and left.
Passing through that wonderful place, Echo Canyon, you now enter another plateau, about five hundred miles in extent, but ribbed with naked mountains, rising from five thousand to seven thousand
feet. This second and last plateau brings you to the
Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Where you cross over this lofty ridge, at the pass
near Doner Loke, is seven thousand and sixty-two
feet above the sea. You must now descend two thousand five hunrdred and seventeen feet in the next fi'
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