OCEAN TO OCEAN 



ON 



HORSEBACK- 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORy. 



ROM earliest boyhood it had been my 

 earnest desire to see and learn from per- 

 sonal observation all that was possible 

 of the wonderful land of my birth. 

 Passing from the schoolroom to the 

 War of the Rebellion and thence back 

 to the employments of peace, the old 

 longing to make a series of journeys 

 over the American Continent again 

 took possession of me and was the controlling in- 

 centive of all my ambitions and struggles for many 

 years. 



To see New England — the home of my ancestors ; 

 to visit the Middle and Western States ; to look upon 

 the majestic ^Mississippi ; to cross the Great Plains ; to 

 scale the mountains and to look through the Golden 

 Gate upon the far-off Pacific were among the cherished 

 desires through which my fancy wandered before leav- 

 ing the Old Home and village school in Northern New 

 York. 



(SI) 



