Westward from Ogden in Utah the Union Pacific route to California is continued upon the Southern Pacific system, that company having absorbed the original Central Pacific road. It passes Corinne, the largest Gentile city in Utah, and then through the Promontory Mountains, on the northern verge of Great Salt Lake. It was at Promontory Point on May 10, 1869, that the railway builders of this original transcontinental line, coming both ways, met, and joined the tracks. The last tie was made of California rosewood, trimmed with silver, and the last four spikes were of silver and gold. The final golden spike was driven with a silver hammer in the presence of a large and silent assemblage. The locomotives coming from the East and the West met, as Bret Harte has written: "Pilots touching--head to head Facing on the single track; Half a world behind each back!" Beyond, the Great American Desert, an alkaline waste, is crossed, the State of Nevada is entered, the Humboldt River is followed for awhile, and then Truckee River is ascended through the Pleasant Valley, leading into the Sierra Nevada, the lower mountain slopes covered with magnificent forests and the railroad protected from avalanches by snow-sheds. The Humboldt River has no outlet. It spreads out in an extensive sheet of water known as the "Carson Sink" and evaporates. At Reno is the Nevada State University, and as this is a silver region there are extensive smelting mills. Thirty-one miles southward is Carson, the capital of Nevada, and twenty-one miles farther the famous silver-mining town of Virginia City, with ten thousand people, built half-way up a steep mountain slope and completely surrounded by mountains. Virginia City stands directly over the noted Comstock Lode, and here are the Bonanza Mines, which were such prolific producers in the great silver days. This lode has produced over $450,000,000, chiefly silver, and it is drained by the Sutro Tunnel, nearly four miles long, which cost $4,500,000 to construct. Nearby, on the California boundary, and at six thousand feet elevation, is the beautiful Lake Tahoe, one of the loveliest sheets of water in the world, twenty-two miles long, very deep, surrounded by snow-clad mountains, and yet it never freezes, its outlet being the Truckee River. In a region of many lakes, it is known as "the gem of the high Sierras." To the westward of Reno is another lovely sheet of water, Donner Lake, embosomed in the lap of towering hills, its name coming from an early explorer, Captain Donner, who, with many of his party, perished on its shores during a heavy snowstorm in 1846. The top of the Sierra Nevada is crossed through a tunnel at Summit Station, elevated seven thousand feet, and beyond there is a complete change both in climate and vegetation, the descent being rapid and the transition from arctic snows to sub-tropical flowers very quick. The line is in many places carved out of the faces of startling