XL.-CASCADE BRIDGE. [SEE FRONTISPIECE.] 1. WHAT distinguishes the Erie Road above all other railroads is its apparent disregard of natural difficulties. It disdains to borrow an underground passage through the heart of an opposing mountain, but climbs the steeps, looks over the tops of the pines and occasionally touches the skirt of a stray cloud. It descends with equal facility, with a slope in some places startlingly perceptible, throws its bridges across rivers, its viaducts over valleys, and sometimes runs along the brink of a giddy precipice with a fearless security which very much heightens the satisfaction of the traveler. 2. One of the most remarkable points on the road is the bridge over Cascade Ravine, which is crossed in the descent from the summit ridge of the Alleghanies to the Susquehanna. The mountain is here interrupted by a deep gorge or chasm, through the bottom of which a small stream trembles in its foamy course. Across this gulf, one hundred and eighty-four feet in depth, a single arch of two hundred and eighty feet span has been thrown, its abutments resting on the solid crags. This daring arch, which to the spectator below seems hung in mid-air, was eighteen months in building, and cost $70,000. A little to the north the gorge opens into the valley of the Susquehanna, disclosing through its rugged jaws the most beautiful landscape seen on the road. 3. It was the good fortune of the writer to be one of the guests in the first train which passed over the Cascade Ravine Bridge. At the close of December, 1848, the line was first opened from Port Jervis to Binghamton, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. At the little villages on the route triumphal arches of fir and hemlock boughs were built for us, upon which antlered bucks, brought in by the hunters, stood straight and stiff. Every town which could boast a cannon gave a hearty salute, and as the early nightfall came on bonfires were lighted on the hills. It was after dark when CASCADE BRIDGE. 189 we left Depcsit, and the snow was a foot deep on the track, but with two locomotives plowing through the drifts we toiled slowly to the summit. After we had passed the deep cut and had entered on the descending grade, it was found that, in consequence of the snow having melted around the rails and afterward frozen again, the breaks attached to the cars would not act. The wheels slipped over the icy surface, and in spite of the amount of snow that had fallen we shot down the mountain at the rate of forty miles an hour. 4. The light of our lamps showed us the white banks on either hand, the ghostly trees above and the storm that drove over all; beyond this was darkness. Some anxiety was felt as we approached the bridge over Cascade Ravine; the time was not auspicious for this first test of its solidity. Every eye 1. THE Sahara is a country of immense extent which occupies the central parts of Northern Africa. It is a desert, the greater part of which consists of a firm soil, in many parts composed of indurated sand, in others of sandstone. The surface of other tracts consists of rocks, especially granite, frequently mixed with quartz, while the rest is covered with a thick layer of fine loose sand. It may be likened to a vast ocean separating the negro kingdoms of equatorial Africa from the more civilized states of the north, and the numerous oases with which it is studded are like so many islands or archipelagoes of islands in the midst of the desert waste. This waste, however, though destitute of everything helpful to human life and comfort, does not always consist of barren sands. There is a vast extent of dry, stunted herbage on which the camel can pasture, and thus a passage across the desert is rendered practicable by routes which could not be traversed were the Sahara what it is often represented as being-one wide sandy plain. 2. In the desert a route through the sand is always chosen in preference to any other, because in the sandy tracts the springs are most likely to be found, and because the sand presents a soft dry bed on which the traveler can repose after the fatigues of the day. It is this preference of the natives which eye is most complete and satisfactory, combining the extreme of lightness and grace with strength and inflexible solidity. A few yards farther up the mountain the cloven chasm, over which the gnarled pines hang their sombre boughs, widens to a rocky basin into which falls a cascade seventy feet in height, whence the ravine takes its name. BAYARD TAYLOR. SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Abutment: fr. the F. aboutir, to meet at the end; fr. bout, end. ... Bonfire: fr. the Danish baun, a beacon, and fire. Gorge: F. gorge, a throat; L. gur'ges, a whirlpool. . . . Locomotive : L. loc'us, place, and mov'eo, mo'tum, to move. . . . Ravine: fr. the F. ravin, a place excavated by a torrent; fr. the L. rap'io, I seize and carry off, ... ... סי 2. One of the most remarkable points on the road is the bridge over Cascade Ravine, which is crossed in the descent from the summit ridge of the Alleghanies to the Susquehanna. The mountain is here interrupted by a deep gorge or chasm, through the bottom of which a small stream trembles in its foamy course. Across this gulf, one hundred and eighty-four feet in depth, a single arch of two hundred and eighty feet span has been thrown, its abutments resting on the solid crags. This daring arch, which to the spectator below seems hung in mid-air, was eighteen months in building, and cost $70,000. A little to the north the gorge opens into the valley of the Susquehanna, disclosing through its rugged jaws the most beautiful landscape seen on the road. 3. It was the good fortune of the writer to be one of the guests in the first train which passed over the Cascade Ravine Bridge. At the close of December, 1848, the line was first opened from Port Jervis to Binghamton, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. At the little villages on the route triumphal arches of fir and hemlock boughs were built for us, upon which antlered bucks, brought in by the hunters, stood straight and stiff. Every town which could boast a cannon gave a hearty salute, and as the early nightfall came on bonfires were lighted on the hills. It was after dark when years more, the annual crop of each tree averaging from three to four hundred pounds' weight. Not only man, but all the animals of the desert, can feed on the date. The fruit is easily preserved by packing it closely in woolen bags; and when thus compressed into solid masses, it will keep for several years. Sometimes a tree is tapped for the sake of its sap, which is much relished as a beverage, and when allowed to ferment forms a drink resembling cider. A single tree will yield fourteen or fifteen quarts a day for two years, but will die if the drain be continued longer. Every part of the date palm is turned to profitable account. The wood is used for building of counontor work the fihre is twisted into XLI. THE SAHARA. 1. THE Sahara is a country of immense extent which occupies the central parts of Northern Africa. It is a desert, the greater part of which consists of a firm soil, in many parts composed of indurated sand, in others of sandstone. The surface of other tracts consists of rocks, especially granite, frequently mixed with quartz, while the rest is covered with a thick layer of fine loose sand. It may be likened to a vast ocean separating the negro kingdoms of equatorial Africa from the more civilized states of the north, and the numerous oases with which it is studded are like so many islands or archipelagoes of islands in the midst of the desert waste. This waste, however, though destitute of everything helpful to human life and comfort, does not always consist of barren sands. There is a vast extent of dry, stunted herbage on which the camel can pasture, and thus a passage across the desert is rendered practicable by routes which could not be traversed were the Sahara what it is often represented as being-one wide sandy plain. 2. In the desert a route through the sand is always chosen in preference to any other, because in the sandy tracts the springs are most likely to be found, and because the sand presents a soft dry bed on which the traveler can repose after the fatigues of the day. It is this preference of the natives which eye is most complete and satisfactory, combining the extreme of lightness and grace with strength and inflexible solidity. A few yards farther up the mountain the cloven chasm, over which the gnarled pines hang their sombre boughs, widens to a rocky basin into which falls a cascade seventy feet in height, whence the ravine takes its name. BAYARD TAYLOR. SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Abutment: fr. the F. aboutir, to meet at the end; fr. bout, end. . . . Bonfire: fr. the Danish baun, a beacon, and fire. Gorge: F. gorge, a throat; L. gur'ges, a whirlpool. Locomotive: ... L. loc'us, place, and mov'eo, mo'tum, to move. . . . Ravine: fr. the F. ravin, a place excavated by a torrent; fr. the L. rap'io, I seize and carrys are wanting, and their place is supplied by heaps of stones or cairns piled at great distances. Sometimes the route will extend for ten or twelve days over a plain affording not a single drop of moisture. 4. Along nearly the whole length of the northern shores of the continent there extends a fertile belt of land, called by the natives the Tell, the cultivation of which yields the means of life to the populations of the coast. In the neighborhood of this fertile belt there are numerous oases extending into the interior, while others, fortunately for the purposes of commerce and civilization, exist within practicable distances across the whole desert. 5. Farther eastward, near the limits of the Sahara, a line of oases extends from its northern to its southern boundary. Of these, the Great Oasis of Thebes is a hundred and twenty miles in length. The oases invariably lie in the lowest levels of the soil, and doubtless owe their existence to the moisture which naturally gravitates toward such positions. Most of these isolated spots, even though hundreds of miles apart, enjoy a constant supply of water, and are favorable to the cultivation of the date palm and other fruit trees, as well as of various kinds of vegetables. 6. The date palm supplies a large proportion of the food of the dwellers in the desert. The tree is thirty-three years in coming to maturity, after which it will bear fruit for seventy |