240 Beyond the Sierras. 



the biennial meeting of the American Horticultural Society for 18SS was 

 planned to take place at the two cities of San Jos6 and Riverside, California. 

 The sessions were to cover a space of six days — the iirst three being the '24th, 

 2oth and 2Glh of January, at San Jos^, and the last three the 7lh, Sth and 

 9th of February, at Riverside. From the very first the reader must begin 

 to make a liberal allowance for distance, and this is, at the beginning, brought 

 forcibly to his attcnti(jn by the fact that the twoOalifornia cities which were 

 to be the termini of the excursion are no less than 570 miles apart 



In arranging the excursion, it was provided that the rendezvous of the 

 various groups of members and their friends should be at Kansas City, on 

 the 12th of January. A great many persons outside of the Society availed 

 themselves of the opportunity offered by it to make a journey to the Pacific 

 coast. These, however, were quite exclusively a superior class of people, who 

 amalgamated well with the members of the Society, so that the company as 

 a whole, large as it was, and representing as it did so many districts of our 

 country, was especially homogeneous and friendly from the start. 



It happened that the ingathering of the excursionists was coincident in 

 time with the oncoming of the first formidable snow-storm of the winter. 

 Nearly all who left their homes on the 10th and 11th of the month did so in 

 pleasant weather, but the gathering in Kansas City on the morning of the 

 12th was in the midst of a tempest of snow-flikes, portending still more 

 seriotis conditions in the atmosphere. 



When it came to make up the trains, it was found that no fewer than 

 twenty-live Pullman coaches were required for the accommodation of the 

 excursionists; nor was there any unoccupied space. The company was fully 

 as large as the room which had been provided for it. The train was made 

 up in three sections, and late in the afternoon of the 12th headed for the 

 south and west. The routes which had been determined on were: outward- 

 bound, the Missouri Pacific from St. Louis, via Kansas City, to Fort Worth; 

 the Texas ife Pacific from Fort Worth to El Paso; and the Southern Pacific from 

 El Paso to San Francisco and other points of destination. On the return, 

 either of several routes might be selected. Most cf the excursionists ex- 

 pected to return by the Atchison, Topeka it Santa F6; others, by the Central 

 Pacific and Union Pacific to the points of departure ; others, still, by the Cen- 

 tral Pacilic and the Denver it Kio Grande. Tiie option was even extended of 

 coming home by way of the Northern Pacific; but, owing to the season, few, 

 if any, availed themselves of this provision. It should be said, once for all, 

 that the arrangements made by the oflicers of the Society and railroad offi- 

 cials for the transportation, the comfort and advantage of the excuraionists, 

 both in going and coining, were all that could be desired. 



In making a voyage of two or three thousjmd miles by rail, the traveler 

 must content himself with riding half tlie distance through tunnels. Every 

 night is a tunnel. With the coming of evening, the voyagers plunge into 

 darkness, and for the next twelve hours the outer world is as though it were 

 not. With the coming of morning, exit from the tunnel. The scene is 



