76 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



daily by the experimental nurseries established by Mr. 

 R. S. Elliott on the line of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. 

 The railroad companies are adopting measures for the 

 prosecution of the work of tree planting on a scale com- 

 mensurate with its acknowledged importance. Meantime 

 individuals and colonies are everywhere penetrating the 

 borders of the vast region, and like the silent and insen- 

 sible process of cellular growth, the germ is expanding 

 which we know must result in their final complete 

 occupation. 



The vague sense of solemnity resulting from the simple 

 impression of vast, inconceivable extent, in crossing these 

 regions is almost appalling. But the continued, solemn 

 monotone seems but the appropriate and fitting prelude 

 to the glorious revelation at its close, when all at once, 

 as if by magic, the whole Western sky is filled with the 

 grand outline of the Rocky Mountain chain, the majeStic 

 forms of their great spurs thrown out upon the plains 

 .like outposts guarding the flanks of the deep gorges 

 which give access to the mystic land beyond, while in 

 the far distance the sky is fretted with the endless variety 

 of mountain forms and snow-clad ranges, which impress 

 upon the mind the conviction that the vast plains which 

 have just been traversed are only justly proportionate as 

 the pedestal of so grand a monument. 



The combined area of all the States east of the 

 Mississippi is less than that of the regions which still lie 

 unappropriated to the use of civilized man between that 

 river and the Pacific Ocean. Portions of it have filled 

 up rapidly since the opening of the Pacific railroads, and 



