In the Early Days along the Overland Trail in Nebraska Territory, in 1852Cole, Gilbert L.
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In the Early Days along the Overland Trail in Nebraska Territory, in 1852
Cole, Gilbert L.
Nebraska; Overland journeys to the Pacific
As one stops to decipher the inscriptions upon this boulder the sense of
distance is entirely lost, and the traveller finds himself trying to
compare it with that other obelisk in Central Park, New York. As he
thinks about them, the truth comes gradually to him that there can be no
comparison, since the one is a masterpiece from the hand of Nature and
the other is but a work of art.
These formations are not really rock, but of a hard marle substance, and
while each is far remote from the others, the same colored strata is
seen in all of them, showing conclusively that once upon a time the
surface of the ground in that region was many feet higher than it was
in 1852 or than it is today, and that by erosion or upheaval large
portions of the soil were displaced and carried away, these three chunks
remaining intact and as specimens of conditions existing many centuries
ago.
I have been through the art galleries of our own country and through
many of those in Europe; I have seen much of the natural scenery in the
Old World as well as in the New; but not once have I seen anything which
surpassed in loveliness and grandeur the pictures which may be seen
throughout Nature's gallery in Nebraska and through which the trail of
'52 led us. Landscapes, waterscapes, rocks, and skies and atmosphere
were here found in the perfection of light, shadow, perspective, color,
and effect. Added to these fixed features were those of life and
animation, contributed by herds of buffalo grazing on the plains, here
and there a bunch of antelope galloping about, and everywhere wolf,
coyote, and prairie dog, while a quaint and picturesque charm came from
the far-reaching line of covered wagons and the many groups of campers,
each with its own curl of ascending smoke, which, to the immigrant,
always indicated that upon that particular patch of ground, for that
particular time, a home had been established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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