OCR Text |
Show THE ALPINE TUNNEL. 237 continue to rise higher and higher until the Continental Divide, with its icy coronet appears clear-cut and glistening against a back ground of blue sky. The Union Pacific, in its effort to out do all rivals in feats of mountain climbing, has, in this instance, mounted to an altitude of 11,500 feet above the sea, at which point the trains plunge into the Alpine tunnel, and the next view we get of the light of day is on the Pacific slope. About a mile farther on the engine dashes around a curve and stops at the "palisades," which rise almost perpendicular to a height of nearly five hundred feet. These towering rocks were beautifully embellished with beds of gauzy ferns. Graceful vines twined about their heads, and the ropes on which the men were suspended to carve out a roadway for the iron horse are still dangling there. Hal. talks learnedly of every green thing, from the "cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hissop that spring-eth out of the wall." Mr. De B thought it would be a proper act of gallantry to present her a bunch of ferns, and in his effort to reach them clung to a rope, which broke with his weight, when, " Oh, what a fall was there!" I wanted to ask him how he liked scaling palisades, but he seemed so cast down I didn't have the heart to speak. Quartz creek, with its numerous tributaries, sparkles through a valley two thousand feet below. Raising one's eyes from this profound abyss the range of vision extends over one hundred and seventy-five miles to the San Juan country, where the Uncompahgre peaks stand with haughty crests, and, lying between, softened by the light blue tint of this lofty'atmosphere, are hill and dale in wavy line and sleepy rest. The eye drinks in such beauty as intoxicates the soul, and then we are whirled away and |