INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 1 



train of the long cars usual in the United States met and literally "telescoped" another. 

 The expression was used in a rather curious way in San Francisco for some time afterwards. 

 If a business man in a hurry ran into another person say, for example, coming round a 

 corner the latter would ejaculate, ' l Hi ! are you trying- to telescope a fellow ? " 



The writer will not soon forget his ride from Laramie to Sherman, a station on one 

 of the ridges of the Rocky Mountains, which the Pacific Railway crosses at an altitude of 

 over 8,000 feet. Armed with a pass from the company, the courteous station- mastev at 

 the former place made no objection to his accompanying a locomotive with a snow-plough 

 attached in front, then starting ahead of the regular train. The plough was a rough 

 specimen of its kind, in form not greatly unlike the ram of an ironclad, and was constructed 

 of sheet-iron, covering a strong wooden frame. But it did its work efficiently, scattering 

 the soft snow on either side in waves and spray, reminding one of the passage of some 

 great ocean steamship through the billows. The snow had drifted in places till it was five or 

 six feet deep on the road, but this proved child's play to the plough, and the services of 

 the navvies, who, seated on the coal, were swinging their legs over the side of the tender, 

 were not required. The greatest danger on the line, now so amply protected by great snow 

 sheds literally wooden tunnels and snow fences, arises from snow which has thawed, frozen, 

 re-thawed, and re-frozen until it is literally packed ice. The wheels of a locomotive, arrived 

 at such a point, either revolve helplessly, without progressing, or run clean off the metals. 



The mention of the effect of ice on the rails recalls a story told by Colonel 

 Bulkley, when the latter was chief of the Russo - American Telegraph Expedition. 

 The colonel during the civil war in the States was at the head of a constructing party, 

 who built temporary lines of telegraph to follow the advancing northern army. The driver 

 of a train which passed through the district in which they were engaged had been ordered 

 to stop nightly and pick the party up, but one night neglected to do so, and the weary 

 constructors had to tramp a dozen miles in the dark to the nearest village. The men 

 naturally determined that this should not occur again, and so next morning armed themselves 

 with several boxes of bar soap. What for ? To soap the rails ! Colonel Bulkley tells glee- 

 fully how they rubbed it on for about a quarter of a mile, how the train arrived at the 

 place, and after gliding on a certain distance, from the momentum it had acquired, came 

 nearly to a standstill, and how the men jumped on and told the joke to everybody. The 

 engineer next 'day did not forget to remember them. 



" Some writers strongly advise the traveller to make a halt at Sherman station," says 

 Mr. Rae. " The inducements held out to him are mountain scenery, invigorating air, 

 fishing and hunting. A sojourn among the peaks of the Rocky Mountains has the 

 attraction of novelty to recommend it. Life there must be, in every sense of the word, 

 a new sensation. But some sensations are undesirable, notwithstanding their undoubted 

 freshness. That splendid trout swarm in the streams near Sherman admits of no dispute. 

 Yet the disciple of Isaak Walton should not be tempted to indulge rashly in his harmless 

 and charming sport. It is delightful to hook large fish ; but it is less agreeable to be 

 pierced through by arrows. Now, the latter contingency is among the probabilities which 

 must be taken into consideration. A few weeks prior to my journey, one of the conductors 

 of the train by which I travelled, learned, by practical experience, that fishing among the 



