NEARING THE SUMMIT OF PIKES PEAK ON THE COG RAILWAY 



Pikes Peak, 14,108 feet, is the highest mountain in America whose summit is reached by 

 a railroad. Little Switzerland, only one third as large as the State of New York, contains 

 more mountain tops accessible by railway than the entire United States. It may be stated, 

 however, without belittling the enterprise and industry with which the Swiss engineers have 

 patiently constructed their marvelous railways to the summits of Gorner Grat, Pilatus, Brienz. 

 Rigi, etc., that the money which financed these railways was in large part the vacation cash 

 left in Switzerland by American tourists. 



was a God-send to the country, for in the 

 war with England in 181 2 the United 

 States secured from it the nitrous earth 

 from which was derived the saltpetre 

 used in the manufacture of the gunpow- 

 der for our armies. 



Nowhere else can one travel so far in 

 Plutonian regions of perpetual night, 

 where petrified efflorescence is a substi- 

 tute for vegetation, as in this great 

 cavern. Vastly larger than Luray, the 

 Mammoth Cave possesses a rich variety 

 of formations. Many of these are huge 

 in their proportions and remarkable in 

 the delicacy of their structure. 



Strange species of creatures are to be 

 found there. One of these is a blind and 



wingless grasshopper, with extremely 

 long antennae ; another is a blind and 

 colorless crayfish ; and a third, a blind 

 fish which grows to the length of about 

 six inches, and possesses the additional 

 curiosity of being viviparous, producing 

 its young in a living state instead of by 

 eggs. Occasionally there are fish caught 

 in the running streams of the cave which, 

 are identical with species common in 

 Green River, indicating a subterranean 

 connection between that river and the 

 streams of the cave. 



THE MOST IMPORTANT RIVER IN THE 

 WORLD 



The imperial Mississippi Valley may 

 well claim the attention of those who 



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