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.

ASCENT OF PIKERS PEAK.
smooth grassy valley between. Many of the mountains are streaked with broad bare tracks, left by
land slides. Vast masses of disintegrated granite
are piled upon each other in dreary wastes. One
huge stone chair overlooks a little kingdom of mountain and valley, but the Titan who sat upon it was
long ago dethroned in one of nature's terrible convulsions, which uprooted hills, and scattered granite
boulders like pebbles.
The burdens already hung like millstones about
our necks. I began to comprehend the emotions
of a pack mule, and to wonder whether a man to
carry twenty-seven pounds of blankets up Pike's
Peak, did not belong to the long-eared species himself.
A cold rain set in, and at noon, drenched and shivering, we encamped under a shelving rock. We kindled a fire and dined upon a rabbit which had sur:
rendered unconditionally to a revolver. The only
true philosophy of getting wet is to get soaked.
Moist clothing brings a hesitating discomfort, but in
feeling that every thread is drenched there is a desperate satisfaction. So we went forth in the driving
rain, and feasted upon ripe raspberries, which grew
so abundantly that one could satisfy his appetite
without moving. Then we returned to camp tiho
roughly saturated, and throughout the afternoon mad(
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