CHAPTER XXIX. 



ALONG THE SACRAMENTO. 



ROM Truckee I rode along the line of 

 the Central Pacific Railroad, stopping for 

 the nio-ht at villacjes intermediate between 

 Truckee and Sacramento, the principal of 

 which were Summit, Colfax and Auburn. 

 Summit is the highest point of the pass 

 through which the railroad crosses the 

 Sierra Nevada, its height above sea-level 

 being 7,042 feet. The population was 

 only a little over one hundred. Colfax, fifty-four 

 miles from Sacramento, had a population of nearly six 

 hundred, mostly employed in the gold mines in the 

 vicinity. Auburn, thirty-six miles from Sacramento, 

 is also a gold-mining village. Its population was 

 given me as over 1,200. Two weekly papers are pub- 

 lished here, and three hotels offer good accommoda- 

 tions to tourists and others. Sacramento was reached 

 November twenty-first, and here I found myself within 

 a hundred miles of my destination. 



California has the Pacific Ocean for its western 

 boundary. Along the seaboard lies the Coast Range of 

 mountains, while for an eastern boundary of the State 

 stretch the Sierras. Between these two chains lies 

 many a hill, yet, io the main, the whole interior of the 

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