. The Pacific tourist . n the streets,before our eyes,by the hardcrystals whichthey crushedinto glacier-likeice. With fiveof them behindthe largestsnow-plow o nthe road, westarted towardt he s u m m i snow flewand eventhe groundtrembled, andevery piece ofthe short snowsheds was wel-comed with joyand blindingsnow, I thought,will cease tofly, but supposethat, whencrushed into icelike granite, it lifts the ponderous plow of 30 tons, or that we gocrashing into the shed prostrate beneath twentyor forty feet of snow; or that an avalanche hascome down and our way lies through the
. The Pacific tourist . n the streets,before our eyes,by the hardcrystals whichthey crushedinto glacier-likeice. With fiveof them behindthe largestsnow-plow o nthe road, westarted towardt he s u m m i snow flewand eventhe groundtrembled, andevery piece ofthe short snowsheds was wel-comed with joyand blindingsnow, I thought,will cease tofly, but supposethat, whencrushed into icelike granite, it lifts the ponderous plow of 30 tons, or that we gocrashing into the shed prostrate beneath twentyor forty feet of snow; or that an avalanche hascome down and our way lies through the tangledtrunks of these huge Sierra pines; five boilersbehind that may soon be on top of us. Never before did I realize the need of thesnow sheds, but I often rebelled against the shut-ting out of natures mountain charms from theweary or unoccupied traveler. Let the discontented not forget that five feetof snow may fall in one day ; that twenty andthirty feet may lie all over the ground at one TMJS f^.^/rn/c Ton^isr, 227. TtTIOfEL NO. 12, BTROXOB CAXOK. time; that forty and fifty fi^et are sometimes tobe seen, where the ro;ul-l>ed is secure beneath it,and that the canons often contain a hundredfeet. These capacious reservoirs are the pledge ofsummer fruitfulness. A winter scene in theseSierras without even the sijflit of unfriendlybruin, will beijet a fondness for the snow shedsthat the summer tourist cannot ima^jine, and abetter appreciation of the bolilness and daringof the men who brave the iiardshi])s of theseniDuntain storms, and peril their lives at everystep for others safety. Day and nijjht I sawthe servants of the public, from highest to low-est, hagjifard and worn, yet never , in theirbattle ajjainst the tremendous storm, and wasoverwhelmed thinkintf of our indebtetlness totheir ener^, skill and endurance, as well as byviewing the wonderful works of (Jod. Thefeeding of the rivers and the purifying of thewinds are the least of the services appointetl tothe hi
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Keywords: ., bookauthorshearerf, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1876
