appoint five Directors to represent the Government in the management of the road. And it also requires these Directors to visit the road as often as they think proper, and make a report upon its condition, management, and progress, to the Secretary of the Interior.

The following are the names of these Directors-Hon. George Ashmun, of Mass.; Hon. Jesse L. Williams, of Ind.; Hon. T. J. Carter, of Ill.; Hon. Springer Harbaugh, of Penn.; and Hon. Charles T. Sherman, of Ohio. Mr. Ashmun did not accompany the party.

Our party separated at Kearny Station, and three of the Government Directors, Messrs. Harbaugh, Carter, and Sherman, remained on the north side of the Platte for the purpose of inspecting the balance of the completed portion of the road, and then returning eastward. While the other Government Director, Hon. Jesse L. Williams, who is also an engineer of great experience, together with Gen. G. M. Dodge, Major Chesbrough and myself, crossed over to the stage station, near Fort Kearny, for the purpose of continuing our journey by stage to the Rocky Mountains.

FROM FORT KEARNY TO DENVER CITY.

We left Fort Kearny at one P. M., on Wednesday, the 12th inst., and arrived at Denver at ten A. M., on the following Saturday, making the entire distance of four hundred miles in less than three days and nights. The speed, comfort, and regularity of these Ben Holladay Overland stages is certainly astonishing, when we consider the fact that they pass through hundreds and thousands of miles of almost uninhabited country; and that it is only five years since the experiment was first attempted. Our party was exceedingly fortunate in falling in company

with Gen. Hughes, the attorney of the Stage Company, who, with his daughter, accompanied us from Omaha to Denver.

FIRST VIEW OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

Our first view of the Rocky Mountains was from a point on the Plains about one hundred miles distant, and about an hour before sunset on Friday evening, the 14th inst. A heavy cloud had been lying along the western horizon during the whole afternoon, and it was feared that we should not obtain the long coveted view before the following morning; but, fortunately, the sun broke through and dispelled the lower belt of clouds just in time to give us a magnificent view of the entire range, and enable us to see the setting of the sun behind Long's Peak, the highest in the range.

DENVER CITY.

The appearance of Denver, as you approach it from the east, is not very imposing. The town is situated in the valley of the South Platte, at the mouth of Cherry Creek, about twelve miles in a direct line from the base of the mountains. And the swell, or elevation of the plain to the eastward, hides it from view until you approach within about three miles of the town. It then bursts upon the view as if by magic; and presents a most comfortable and inviting appearance to the weary traveller from the Plains, who has seen nothing but log and adobe ranches, at intervals of ten and twenty miles, for many long and weary days and nights.

Denver boasts of four or five thousand inhabitants. The streets are regularly laid out; and there are many fine brick blocks, either constructed or in course of con

struction. You can purchase almost anything here that can be purchased in New York, but at prices from fifty to one hundred per cent. higher. The hotels are very ordinary. Nothing would improve the town more than the construction of two or three first-class hotels.

We are about to start on our trip through the mountains by way of Golden City, Idaho, and Empire City, to Berthoud's Pass.

General Dodge and Major Chesbrough will go from here directly to Laporte, where Mr. Williams and myself are to join them after our return from the mountains.

II.

DENVER CITY TO GOLDEN CITY-IDAHO EMPIRE CITY, AND BERTHOUD PASS-VALLEY OF CLEAR CREEK-MINING

ERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

OPERATIONS-SCEN

EMPIRE CITY, COLORADO, September 19, 1866.

Hon. Jesse L. Williams, one of the Government Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad, and myself, accompanied on horseback by Mr. P. T. Brown, the Assistant Engineer, who had been making the surveys for the road through this wild and forbidding portion of the route, started out from Denver on the morning of the 17th, in a comfortable covered carriage, drawn by a pair of lazy, broken down mules, these being considered the most safe and reliable for the rough mountain roads we were to traverse. The outfit, as all conveyances are designated in this country, was under the special charge of Mr. Brooks, a most venerable and experienced mountaineer and driver. Our objective point was Berthoud Pass, and our route lay up the Valley of Clear Creek, or as near it as the road would allow us to travel.

From Denver, the base of the mountains appears so near as to invite a short morning walk to them before breakfast; but we only reached them after a long two hours' ride of twelve miles, behind our "safe and reliable" mules, over the intervening plains. We entered the somewhat broken and irregular base of the first range, or Table Mountain, as it is called, through the opening made by the Valley of Clear Creek, instead of by

the regularly travelled road some miles further south; and made our first halt at Golden City, fourteen miles from Denver. This place is most beautiful for situation; and should have been the great commercial city for the mining interests of this portion of Colorado. But Denver, during the Cherry Creek excitement years ago, obtained a long distance the start of it, and will, from present appearances, retain the advantage. Here we found iron-ore, coal and fire-clay in abundance, all which will, sooner or later, be turned to good account.

GETTING INTO THE MOUNTAINS.

It being impossible to follow further up the Valley of Clear Creek, on account of the intervening cañon extending some twelve or fifteen miles in our proper direction, we were obliged to make a detour to the south, and enter the next range through a less formidable gorge, up which a very good road had been made in the direction of Idaho and Empire Cities. We stopped an hour for a very good dinner at the Genessee Ranch, where we were overtaken by our very intelligent and eccentric friend Wolfe, whose acquaintance we had made at Denver, and who was wending his way to his mines in the mountains with a load of enormous cabbages, turnips, water, musk and other melons, the products of his large and well-cultivated Ranch on Clear Creek, near Denver. After regaling us for dessert with one of his finest melons, Mr. Wolfe opened to us his plans of a new process for separating the precious metals from the quartz; and also his theory for the extinction of cholera; all which, it is needless to say, met with our unqualified approbation.