From Preface
In the lover of mountain scenery--even in one familiar with
the Alps--the Rocky Mountains, especially the Sierra
Nevada, will excite a new and exquisite sensation. Such
extent of grandeur is unparalled in any mountains explored
in civilized regions.
. . . The beauties and wonders described in this book,
however, are not presented for the benefit of the sick, but
to the crowd of pleasure-seekers who make their annual
visitations to Niagara, Newport, Satatoga, Cape May, and
other centres of fashion, frivolity, foppery and folly.
With half the expenditure of money and vital force thus
thrown away, to the moral and physical deterioration of all
concerned, the California trip, via the Pacific
Railroad, may be thoroughly enjoyed. There is nothing in it
to enfeeble, but everything to strengthen; the exhilarating
mountain air, by day or by night, makes the lungs tingle
with a sensation never experienced at the Eastern
watering-places; the cool mountain-streams will prove a
better tonic to the dyspeptic, than all the drugs he has
swallowed. The brains of the student and the overworked
merchant can here lie fallow amid scenes which, by their
strange fascination, will drive from the memory all thought
of books and ledgers; even the love of dress, and the
pursuit of fashions, leave their votaries, as they take
their seat in the saddle for the Valley or the Big
Trees.
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
