The Pacific tourist:

Trg PAC~C rorors.
leaving this question to the more practical
thoughts of our readers, we hasten on, winding
around promontories and in and out of " draws "
and ravines, through rocky cuts, and over high
embankments with the river rolling and tumbling
almost beneath our feet, and the ragged peaks
towering high above us, passing
Salvia,-a simple side track, six miles from
Wadsworth. Now we have something to occupy
our attention; there are new scenes passing by
at every length of th e car, a n d we have to look
sharp and quick, or many o f them will be lost
forev er. Soon w e make a short turn to the right,
and what the rail road men call " Red Rock" appears in front, the n t o our right, and finally over
our heads. It is a hug e mountain of lava that
has, sometime, i n the ages of the past, been
vom ited fr om the c r ater of some volcano now
extinct; or it may have been thrown up by some
mighty convulsion o f nature that fairly shook
the rock-ribbed earth till it trembled like an aspen leaf, and in which these huge mountain piles
were throw n into their prese nt position. Present l y, amidst the grandeur of these mountains,
a lovely valley bur st s upon our view. We have
arrived at t h e li tt le meadows of the Truckee, at
a stati o n called
Clark's,-313 miles from San Francisco, with
an eleva t ion of 4,263 f eet. This station is named
from a f ormer proprietor of the ranche here. It
is a beautiful place with mountains all around it,
and the o nly way y ou can see out, is to look up
toward the heavens. The narrow bottom on
either si de of the river i s fenced in, producing
ex cellent crop s of vegetables and hay, and affording excellent grazing for the stock that is kept
here. A s w e arrive at thi s station, we pass
through a cut of sand which seems just ready to
b ecome stratified, and which holds itself up in
layers, in the sid es of the cut. Occasionally, as
w e look over the nearer peaks in front, we can
catch a glimpse of the snow-crowned Sierras in
the distance. Now a creek co mes in from a
cano o n n ou r l eft, and through this c a non is a
wago n road to Virginia C ity, and now a butte is
passed between us and -the river-the river being
on our left s in ce we crossed it at Wadsworth.
There ar e a f ew ra nc hes sc attered along its
banks where vegetables for the 10,000 miners at
Virginia City are g r own. The mount ains w e
have passed are fullot of v ariegated streaks of clay
or mineral, some white, some red, some yellow,
and some pale green. You will notice them as
you pass
Vista,-301 miles from San Francisco; elevation, 4,403 feet. We are going up hill again.
At this station we arrive at the Truckee Meadows. It is like an immense amphitheatre, and
the traveler rejoices again in the presence of
farm-houses and cultivated fields —in the scene
of beauty that spreads out before him. Beyond
the level plain, we see in front of us Peavine
Mountain and at the base of the hills to the
farther side of the valley, lies Reno. To our left
Mt. Rose lifts its snow-covered head; to the left
of Mt. Rose is Slide Mountain.
Letters.-Throughout the Territories and the
Pacific Coast,-'letter days, when the Pony Express, Mail Coaches or Steamer arrived, the local
population was wrought up to its most intense
excitement, and expectation of news. In the Territory of Montana letters could not be obtained
from any direction by regular mails, and the inhabitants depended upon the good offices of
traders, who journeyed at long intervals back
and forth, who brought with them letters and
newspapers, for which, gladly, every receiver
paid $2.50 gold. Letters in California were received only by steam via the Isthmus of Panarna, fully 30 days being occupied in the trip
from New York, and fully 90 days' time was
necessary to send a letter from San Francisco
to any po int in the East, and receive a re ply.
Whenever the semi-monthly steamer arrived at
San Francisco, the event was celebrated by the
firing of guns, and the ringing of bells, and
an immediate rush for the post-office. The letter deliveries from the post-office, were often
from a window opening directly upon the
public street, and a long line of anxious letter-seekers would quickly form —extending often half a mile in length. Here were gathered
the characteristic classes of California life, the
',gray shirt brigade" of miners, many of whom
in their rugged life had not heard from home
for a full year; next anxious merchants whose
fate depended upon their letters and invoices, and
on approaching the office, had only a feeling of
dismay at the terrible length of the line, with
little hope of approaching the window for hours.
At last they were compelled to offer sums for purchases of place from some fortunate one in the
line. It used to take five hours or longer, on ordinary occasions, to get to the window, and there
were lots of idlers who had no friends, nor ever
expected a letter, who from pure mischief, took
their places in the line, and then when near the
window sold out again. From $5 to $20 were
the average prices for fair places, but $50 to
$100 were often paid for a good position near
the window. Prices were in proportion to the
length of the line or the anxiety of the individual. The expression of countenance of some of
those paying highest rates, when forced to leave
the window without a letter, is beyond description. " Selling out in the line," soon became a
trade, and many a loafer made his $10 to $20three or four times a day. Cases have even
been known, where over-anxious individuals in
search of letters, would take their positions at
the post-ofie window, one or twpo days before the
arrival of the expected steamer, often passing
the entire night standing and watching at the
window, and only leaving it when forced to seek
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