. The great lone land : a narrative of travel and adventure in the North-West of America. of the three hills, we entered a narrow gorgefringed with a fire-ravaged forest. This gorge wound throughthe hills, preventing a far-reaching view ahead; but atlength its western termination was reached, and there laybefore me a sight to be long remembered. The great chainof the Rocky Mountains rose their snow-clad sierras inendless succession. Climbing one of the eminences, I gaineda vantage-point on the summit from which some by-gonefire had swept the trees. Then, looking west, I beheld thegreat range i
. The great lone land : a narrative of travel and adventure in the North-West of America. of the three hills, we entered a narrow gorgefringed with a fire-ravaged forest. This gorge wound throughthe hills, preventing a far-reaching view ahead; but atlength its western termination was reached, and there laybefore me a sight to be long remembered. The great chainof the Rocky Mountains rose their snow-clad sierras inendless succession. Climbing one of the eminences, I gaineda vantage-point on the summit from which some by-gonefire had swept the trees. Then, looking west, I beheld thegreat range in unclouded glory. The snow had clearedthe atmosphere, the sky was coldly bright. An immenseplain stretched from my feet to the mountain—a plain sovast that every object of hill and wood and lake lay dwarfedinto one continuous level, and at the back of this level,beyond the pines and the lakes and the river-courses,rose the giant range, solid, impassable, silent—a mightybanier rising midst an immense land, standing sentinelover the plains and prairies of America, over the measure-. I THE GREAT LONE lAXD. 275 less solitudes of this Great Lone Land. Here, at last, lay theRocky Mountains. Leaving behind the Medicine Hills, we descended into theplain and held our way until sunset towards the west. It wasacalm and beautiful evening; far-away objects stood out sharpand distinct in the pure atmosphere of these elevated some hours we had lost sight of the mountains, but shortlybefore sunset the summit of a long ridge was gained, and theyburst suddenly into view in greater magnificence than atmidday. Telling my men to go on and make the camp atthe Medicine River, I rode through some fire-wasted forestto a lofty grass-covered height which the declining sun wasbathing in floods of glor3^ I cannot hope to put into thecompass of words the scene which lay rolled beneath fromthis sunset-lighted eminence; for, as I looked over theimmense plain and watched the slow descent of th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidgreatlonelan, bookyear1874
