30 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jax. 1. 



electric rail ways, tiiey are "' getting there " all 

 the same. Of course. I couldn't go to nil the 

 churches, but I attended two different Congre- 

 gational, and found large and intelligent audi- 

 ences. At the Y. M. C. A. Sunday afternoon I 

 found a larger attendance than iu any other 

 city where I have traveled. I talked to them 

 for perhaps five minutes, and I think more 

 came to me to shake hands, when the meeting 

 closed, than in any other place I liave visited. 

 With open saloons, of course they have interri- 

 perance: and the swearing on the streets in 

 some parts of the city is pretty bad: but I saw 

 notices in some of the public buildings forbid- 

 ding it, and calling attention to the law in re- 

 gard to it. 



Dec. .<^.— I am off for Washington this morning. 

 The raili-oad takes its course along the Salt 

 Lake Valley, at the foot of the mountains. In 

 many places the number of springs at the foot 

 of the hills is so great 1 am told no irriga- 

 tion is needed to get immense crops. In these 

 spring runs, a great abundance of most beauti- 

 ful water-cress is found all winter long. In 

 fact, I saw where wagonloads of it might easily 

 be gathered. Hot springs are also found at 

 many i)oints. My impression is, the heat comes 

 from chemical action rather than from volcanic 

 fires in the interior of the earth. I find the hot 

 spring water is all more or less charged with 

 mineral salts. Well, the water from the melt- 

 ing snows on the mountains sinks into the 

 earth; and where minerals and chemical salts 

 are so abundant it is not strange that this wa- 

 ter soon becomes a strong solution of some- 

 thing. Now, it is well known in chemistry that 

 two solutions poured together often give out 

 violent heat. Sulphuric acid and water is a 

 familiar example. This will become boiling 

 hot if mixed in the right proportion. The hot 

 spring of Salt Lake is heavily charged with 

 sulphur, and at the same time is very strong of 

 common salt. If you stand to the windward 

 side, the sulphur fumes, as they come off in 

 the vapor, are quite unpleasant. 



LETTER TO HUBEK. 



Well, my boy, there are several funny things 

 true of your papa this afternoon. Let us see: 



First, I am away up in the clouds — yes, al- 

 most a mile high. You see, the mountains are 

 up in the clouds; and as we have to cross them 

 we had to go up into the clouds too. Oh, myl 

 but you ought to see it snow up here. You 

 know you wanted it to snow when I left home. 

 Second. I am away off in the State of Idaho. 

 If you look on the map you can find it. There 

 are a great many mountains in Idaho, and lots 

 of pretty valleys full of hoi'Ses and cattle. There 

 are some very good horses here. Two men just 

 jumped on their horses and bounded off' through 

 the snow and sage brush. How the horses did 

 make the new soft snow fly with their hoofs! 

 If it were me I should almost be afraid of get- 

 ting snowed under. The sage brush is about as 

 large as current-bushes, and so close you can 

 just get between them. There are miles and 

 miles of it. I think the bees might get honey 

 from it in the summer time. vVe just saw a 

 farmei' out among the sage brush, living in a 

 t<Mit— yes, a tent in a snowstorm. Shouldn't 

 you think he would get pretty cold ? 



The third thingis — what do you think? Why, 

 to-day is the first time in my life that I was .52 

 years old. Funny, ain't it? that my birthday 

 should come when I am away off up in the 

 clouds, in a big snowxtonn, out iu Iclitho. 



Near McCammon, Idaho, are some strange 

 I'ock formations. At first I thought a carload 

 of railroad-ties had been stood on end for some 

 purpose, and tliat they had them all tumbleil 

 every which way. Then came another such 



heap, then lots more. Soon I saw they were 

 long stones, split out by Nature's hand. The 

 queer rock all seems to be on end, and the rain 

 and frost have split it up like blocks cut off for 

 firewood, and the sticks just lie tumbled about. 

 Many of them would make beautiful fence or 

 hitching jiosts. In one place they are long 

 enough for rails, or short thick telegraph- 

 poles; but the most of them are about the 

 length and size of ties. They stand along the 

 track for miles, and on some of the bluff's there 

 are just acres of them. I tried the Kodak on 

 them: but as the train didn't stop, I am afraid 

 the picture won't be very good. 



All through Idaho we find the strange rocks I 

 have described. A bunch of them stick up on 

 the piain, and the pieces are scattered all about. 

 Toward the eastern line the rocks are nearer 

 cubical, say from two to three feet on a side; 

 and scattered here and there over the desert 

 waste are huge building blocks of stone, spread 

 out, as it were, just right for the mason to go to 

 work at. There are enough such blocks of stone 

 for all the cities and villages Idaho will ever 

 build. 



Dec. 10. — To-day my heart is rejoiced to see a 

 real genuine rail fence. After traveling for 

 three weeks over miles and miles with no nat- 

 ural forests, it is not strange that I hungered 

 for the sight of old familiar scenes. Even the 

 horses and cattle seemed more natural, and 

 more at home, on the other side of a rail fence. 

 At Pleasant Valley, Oregon, I saw, also, great 

 piles of native lumber about a sawmill. Y"ou 

 may think strange I make so much of this; but, 

 dear reader, what is our great United States to 

 do for lumberwhen tlie native forests are gone? 

 How are we to continue to build when the 

 trees are cut down ? I should say that at 

 least nine - tenths of our land is timberles-^. 

 and yet in many places the great effort seems to 

 be to destroy and waste it. Since getting into 

 Oregon I am also rejoiced to see nice patches of 

 fruit surrounding every home. Thrifty or- 

 'chards and patches of small fruit seem to go 

 well with rail fences. Our conductor just pass- 

 ed through the cai", exhibiting an immense ap- 

 ple, and a perfect beauty. He said a man just 

 gave it him who raised it on his farm up among 

 the hills. 



Along here the rocks and cliffs are penciled 

 with a delicate green, shading off into many 

 tints of yellow. The effect is very fine. I think 

 it must be owing to the minei'als and chemicals 

 dissolved by the water. 



Dec. 11. — Long before daylight I was at my 

 post by the car-window. The pine-trees are so 

 large and so many, the daylight has been slow- 

 in getting through; but the scenery as we ap- 

 proach Portland is wonderful. The track runs 

 between the Columbia River and the cliffs, and 

 said cliffs are, some of them, almost if not 

 quite half a mile high. Well, to add to the 

 charm of the evergreen trees and the cliffs, 

 beautiful waterfalls come pouring and leaping 

 down the cliff at frequent intervals. Some of 

 those falls almost spatter the car - windows, 

 they are so close; and when I tell you that one 

 of them, Multnomah, pours down eight hundred 

 and fifty feet you need not be siu'prised that I 

 was enraptured. Besides the falls. Nature has 

 clothed the rocks and cliffs with beautiful 

 green mosses and ferns, and I suppose this is the 

 effect of the abundance of rain; for now, dear 

 reader, we have |»ass('(l the thousands of miles 

 of rainless regions, and here in Oregon it rains 

 both winter and summer. In fact, the abun- 

 dance of rain here is one of the standing jokes. 

 A passenger, who overheard my questions, re- 

 marked with a laugh, '" Why, my friend, some- 

 times here with us it rains twice on the same 

 dav." 



