THE BLACK HILLS. 231 
ney were ticked out in passing. Many scraps of European 
lews reached us in this way, and made it hard to believe that 
re were 6,000 miles nearer sunset than those who spoke to 
s through the wires. Brigham Young has private telegraph 
vires laid down all over Utah and the Great Basin, uniting 
is isolated communities with the central seat of government. 
these all enter his house near the Tabernacle. 
We accomplished the 1,350 miles from San Francisco to the 
oot of the Black Hills by means of four kinds of conveyance ; 
124 miles were travelled by steamboat, 92 by rail, about 250 
by sledges, and the rest in mud-wagons. The 250 miles of 
ledging were divided into five intervals of from 30 to 100 
niles each, in which we crossed the highest mountain sum- 
: its on the route; these were the Sierra Nevada, the Wah- 
at oh Mountains, eed’s and Bitter Creek summits, Bridger’s ~ 
ss, and the Black Hills. Such changes broke the journey, 
rendered it much less fatiguing than it otherwise would 
been. On reaching the station at the foot of the Black 
8, where the stages branch off to Denver and the south, 
ound that a heavy fall of snow had stopped the traffic by — 
along the Platte route; but as the storm had not 
xtended as far west as the Rocky Mountains, travel was still 
to Denver, and thence by the Smoky Hill Fork, our old 
e, to St. Louis. We woke up Leland, who was asleep in 
boot—his favourite resting-place, but how he squeezed 
it has ever remained a mystery—and held a consultation 
whether we should go on to Cheyenne or take the coach 
Denver. The deliberations ended in a general break-up 
ur little party of four. Colton started off. to see how the 
was progressing in Evan’s Pass, Leland went on in the 
to Cheyenne, where he expected to meet many friends, 
to > some refreshment before continuing his journey, 
hd 
