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.

(..CHAPTER VIL
THE PLAINS.
' We cross the prairie as of oid
The pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West as they the East
The household of the free?'
Here we must wait till the rivers and streams
which gather in the melted snows in summer on this
slope of thle Rovky Mounntains are damned and made
to irrigate this otherwise unproductive soil, as to
cereals, fruit and vegetables. But thie native grass
is strong and nutritious, und( pasturage is uibouIl(ded; if it were not so, the countless herds of buffalo
would not have fattened and roamed these plains
for unnumbered centuries. This country would
laugh now to be called by the opprobrious name of
"American desert." But the Railroad has killed,
for the present, whatever cultivation these plains
had received during the time of slow movitig emigration, stage travel and prairie schooner freightinig.
The ranches and stations which were supported by
this travel through the country are now abandoned,
for the cars carry everybody and everythii)g. They
-were the out-posts of civilization, but now the old
roads are abandoned and the settlers have lost their
improvements, being obliged for better protection
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