SKETCH OF THE ROUTE. 249 
‘®eautiful clumps of foliage are soon left behind, and nothing 
.femains to break the monotony of the undulating plains but 
othe bluffs or cliffs which mark the edge between the sunken 
) valley and the parched plateau beyond. 
| In the Black Hills some fine views of timbered country 
fare obtained, and the dividing ridge is crossed with ease at 
an elevation of 8,262 feet, no grade being higher than ninety 
feet, and this only for a short distance. The Laramie plains 
are then crossed. They form, for the most part, a level upland 
plateau, exceeding an elevation of 7,000 feet. They are 
covered with good pasturage, particularly along the courses of 
the streams. During the short summer which exists here 
the ranche-men have found it possible to raise some garden 
vegetables; but even oats, although they come up well and 
form capital fodder, will not ripen. These plains are bounded 
on the west by a broad undulation, or range, forming the 
continental water-parting. No engineering difficulties occur 
here, and the Pacific slope is reached without a tunnel or any 
grades steeper than 75 feet per mile, which it is necessary to 
resort to for a short distance. One hundred and forty miles 
E Separate the Black Hills from this summit. 
_ North of the Laramie plains lies the Sweet-water mining 
trict, which is now attracting thousands of gold-diggers. 
South of it lie the gold-fields of Colorado, many of which are 
ipplied at the present time with nearly all the necessaries of 
e from Cheyenne,—the Denver of these northern mining 
districts. : 
The sterility of these regions is not an unmitigated evil to 
Yailroad which crosses them ; for the miners, whose wants 
are very great, require all the necessaries and many of the 
luxuries of life to be carried to them by rail. A non-pro- 
ducing population—say of 1,000 miners—as well on account 
