WITH WESTERN STARS AND SUNSETS
"The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills, and the plains—
Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns?"
Tennyson
"It may be that the gulfs will wash us down."
Tennyson
My father's kingdom is so large that people perish with cold at one extremity whilst they are suffocated with heat at the other."
Cyrus to Xenophon
The good American of the Twentieth century by no means defers going to Paris until he dies, but anticipates the joys of Paradise by making a familiarity with the French capital one of the consolations that tend to the alleviation of his enforced terrestrial sojourn. All Europe, indeed, has become the pleasure-ground of American tourists, a large proportion of whom fail to realize that in our own country there are enchanted regions in which the traveller feels that he has been caught up in the starry immensities and heard the words not lawful for man to utter. Within the limits of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California there are four centres of sublime and unparalleled scenic sublimity which stand alone and unrivalled in the world. Neither the Alps nor the Himalayas can offer any parallel to the phenomena of the mountain and desert systems of the Southwest as wrought by the march of ages, presenting unique and incomparable problems of scientific interest that defy solution, and which are inviting the constant study and increasing research of many among the most eminent specialists of the day in geology and metallurgy. The Pike's Peak region offers to the traveller not only the ascent of the stupendous Peak, but also the "Short Line" trip between Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek, which affords forty-five miles of marvellous mountain and cañon effects. The engineering problem of the ascent of St. Peter's Dome,—a huge mass of granite towering eleven thousand feet into the air, around which the steel track winds in terraces, glory after glory of view repeating itself from the ascending vistas as the train climbs the dizzy height,—the engineering problem that is here at once presented and solved, has attracted scientific attention all over the world as the most extraordinary achievement in mountain transportation. The Grand Cañon of the Colorado in Arizona, two days' journey from the Pike's Peak region, the Petrified Forests that lie also in Arizona, seventy-five miles beyond the border of New Mexico, and that Buried Star near Cañon Diablo, make up a group that travellers and scientists are beginning ardently to appreciate. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California offer, all in all, a landscape panorama that for grandeur, charm of climate, and rich and varied resources is unrivalled. Imagination falters before the resources of this region and the inducements it offers as a locality in which to live surrounded by perpetual beauty. The air is all exhilaration; the deep blue skies are a miracle of color by day, and a miracle of shining firmament by night; the land offers its richly varied returns in agriculture, fruit, mining, or grazing, according to the specific locality; the inhabitants represent the best quality of American life; the opportunities and advantages already offered and constantly increasing are greater than would at first be considered possible. This entire Southwest can only be accurately defined as the Land of Enchantment.
"Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'