6 We rode to the junksion Junction and travelled
up * ^[FIGURE]^ to the summit of the Divid we had
to asscend to the highth of 10700 feet. we asscended 1000
feet above the first snowdrifts it was a grand scenery
we passed hundreds of Acres of pine fence polls
100 feet in length when on the summit we had a view
of the country for 20 or 30 miles around we passed through
several Miles of snow sheds we leave the water of the at the summit * ^[FIGURES]^ when we commenced to descend
we reached the Head waters of the The gunnison
runs into the & the Arkansas into the , we
passed through before we reached the summit the
perpendicular ragged walls rose over our heads from 1000 to
3000 feet on our left with the ^gunnison^ river on our right this
in connexion with the Royal gorge is the grandest scenery
and the Most difficult location for a rail road I think that can
be found in the world. This road was made By Brother Hendricks
& No human being had Ever passed through this canyon
untill these Brethren had Blasted out a rocky bed for this railroad
and in order to commence it the workmen were let down
in rop[e] Baskets, and drilled holes into the rock and touched
off with a fuse long Enough to Enabled the men to be halled
up high Enough to be out of the reach of harm, this road was
built 15 miles at the base of this huge Mountain Just above
high water mark As we descended from the summit down
the Arkansas River the road was as crooked as the river
and we were sitting in an open car for observation at
the hind End of the train and we were hurled down that
canyon over those sharp curves at the rate of 40 miles
an hour and it seemed to me that nothing but the power
of God saved us many times from being hurled into the Billows
Below us many times when the Locomotive was going North
we were going East and vice versa. we were in great
danger, and when we arived at the Bottom we breathed much
freeer we arived at in the Evening we here took
supper and changed cars we took sleeping cars and arived
at at I oclok. Distance of the day 331 Miles
