Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/129



The scenery  at  times  is  fascinating  in  its  very  wild- ness and  sterility,  and  in  the  strange  and  fantastic shapes it  often  assumes. There are  the  weird  buttes, and a  Chimney  rock,  at  once  the  monument  and  rem- nant of an  ancient  bluff,  beaten  upon  and  worn  away by the  winds  and  waters  of  ages,  yet  lifting  still  into the face  of  heaven  its  long,  fixed  finger  of  hope  or warning,  as  you  choose  to  regard  it. S^ott bluffs spread for  miles  their  sandstone  towers  and  sand-cliffs, grand as  the  hills  of  Bashan  and  the  giant  cities ;  but one by  one,  through  the  long  ages,  their  wandering, terrible foe,  heralded  by  cloudy  column  and  pillar  of fire,  girdles  their  ramparts,  and  the  crash  of  a  Jericho is heard  again  through  the  horn-blasts  of  the  tempest, and the  roar  of  the  beleaguerinof  elements. Then the grass becomes  scarce  as  the  emigrant  passes  on,  and in many  places  is  all  consumed,  and  new  and  untrod- den routes must  be  sought,  and  cattle  begin  to  faint for food,  and  women  and  children  to  sicken  and  die, and men,  ill-fed  and  poorly  clad,  keeping  the  saddle from daylight  till  dark,  and  exposed  to  alternate  blasts of heat  and  cold,  begin  to  fail. Wagons must  be lightened  of  their  load  or  emptied. Meanwhile the poor dumb  brutes  thus  slowly  dying,  sacrificed  to  their owners' greed,  gasping,  and  insensible  to  the  goad, open-mouthed, with  lolling  tongue  and  slobbering jaws and  dull  sunken  eyes,  drag  along  their  two  or twenty  miles  a  day,  or  with  limbs  swollen  and  trem- bling fall dead  from  thirst  and  hunger.

Better their  masters,  brutes  scarcely  more  reason- able, should thus  have  died;  and  so  they  did,  poor fellows, many  of  them,  and  mingled  their  bodies  with the carcasses  of  their  beasts. All the  way  from  the valley of  the  Mississippi  westward,  long,  tortuous tracks were  marked  by  the  broken  wagons,  demolished tents, cast-off  clothing,  stale  provisions,  and  household effects that  lined  the  roadside  ;  all  along  the  several routes by  which  these  pilgrims  marched  were  scattered bones, and  the  rotting  carcasses  of  cattle  intermingled