BEYOND THE SIERRAS.' 



CHAPTER I. 



EX AVANT. 



The Rendezvous. — The Start.— Land of the Creeks. — Denison. — First Reception. — 

 To Fort Worth. — The City, — Westward Bound. — Dunder ami Blitzen. — Land- 

 scapes of Western Texas. — El Paso and Paso del Norte. — Tor-r-ro ! — Across the 

 Gadsden Purchase. — The Arizonian Plateau. — Tucson. — Tlie Sage-Bush. — 

 The Marquis (f Leap. — Giant Cactus. — Shining Atmosphere. — Adobe Villages. 



It has fallen to the part of the writer to put into ferm for the present 

 volume some observations relative to the recent excursion of the American 

 Horfcultural Society to the Pacific coast. He is not certain that within the 

 limits of a few chapters he shall be able to present even an adequate sum- 

 mary of the many objects of interest, and the thousand recollections and 

 comments that rise to view whenever this great tour or overland voyage of 

 the Society is mentioned. On the whole, it is doubtful whether any other 

 company of people of equal numbers and equal abilities to see and to learn, 

 to appreciate new conditions, and to estimate the value of the new facts and 

 phenomena peculiar to the vast regions constituting the western borders of 

 our country, have ever had such an extended and favorable opportunity for 

 taking in an almost infinite variety of scene and circumstance, or have more 

 fully enjoyed the advantages thus arising, than have our membership in the 

 case of their California excursion. 



The present work will, of course, be confined to general views, and to 

 such comments and observations as f-prang from the larger facts of our tour, 

 and will drop into details only as it respects certain particular parts of un- 

 usual interest. It will not be expected that the writer has in all cases him- 

 self been most interested and instructed with the same facts and conditions 

 that have appealed most strongly to other and more observant members of 

 the company ; but since his office is to make a picture of the whole, the draw- 

 ing must be, of course, after his own conception, and the coloring from his 

 own poor assortment of tints and pigments. 



A s has been stated in the opening paragraphs of the present publication, 



-Copyrighted by John Clark Ridpath. All rights reserved. 



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