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Took dinner at 12 with Arthur Crow. He went back to Battle on afternoon stage. Took a walk down to a spring that comes out right by Edge of Platte. It's so hot you can scarcely drink it as it bubbles out of ground but tastes fine.
Got in the stage and found it was terribly full. There was 12 passengers and a lot of trunks and mail and baggage. 3 of us sat on a back seat. Mr. Lehman a wall paper man of Omaha, a man from Dubuque Iowa. I sat to set edgewise all the time and nearly skinned my knees on the seat in front.

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We were ½ an hour late and first rushed along over those rocks. At Pass Creek Station where they changed horses and I found the stage going to Fort Steele had no passengers so I transferred, although it was 10 miles instead of 5. The young driver attempted a new road out of White Horse Canyon and ran into a ranchman's fence so we had to make a long trip around. We got to Fort Steele and I got a good lunch at a lunch counter connected with a saloon. Got on the train. Mr. Lehman and Mr. Gilbert and myself had planned to get in the Denver tourist sleeper that stands on track in Cheyenne until 6.20 a.m. and thus get a night's sleep. When I asked the Pullman conductor he said there were just 46 tickets sold in that car some of the berths had 2

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people in with a child or two lying across their feet so I and Mr. Kyner got a seat in seat in the chair car which was lucky for there were 10 or 15 standing in the aisle when we got to Cheyenne.
James Kyner talked to me steady until 10.50 when I wanted to go to sleep at 8. It was very interesting if I had not been so tired.
He is a Railroad Contractor. His first contract was building the U.P. from St. Paul Nebr to North Loup. He said in cutting through the north line of the Chalk Hills he blowed[sic] open at least 6 Beaver residences where they had tunnled[sic] up through the soft rock to above the water line and fixed up fine homes. One he said was big enough

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for two men to have got into. His last contract was a "cut" for U.P. right near Wolcott. He said it was over 1500 feet long and an average of 80 ft deep. He used 4 car loads of black blasting powder and over 20000 lbs of dynamite and graut powder. He had Huns and Italians and Hobos working for him.
Jonathan Crow father of Arthur used to be his foreman. He built T.E. & M.U. from Long Pine. Said once he and chief Engineer stood in middle of Wyoming on the Divide between Rawhide and Running Water and they closely[sic] arrived there down the mountain and saw

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great herds of Elk and deer and Antelope. They got their glasses and counted one bunch and estimated that there were 10,000 in sight nearly all killed out now.
Kymer has been all over the U.S. on Pacific & also Atlantic. Has had clams to eat in Boston-Shrimps in San Francisco, Oysters in Baltimore. Has gone on steamboats on Mississippi & Missouri/
Word picture by Kymer.
I have gone up the Hudson River when it seemed as thought everyone was in the water-
Thousands of boats some plowing along, some lazily drifting, naptha launches hurryin all about. Cozy yachts carrying people of means and leisure. All the world seemed on the water- brick sloops, lumber schooners, etc etc. carried merchandise of

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every description going up that beautiful river with the Adirondacks on one side and the Catskills on the other. It seems as if one had seen the most beautiful sights in the world. We pass Weehawken where Burr killed Hamilton. Tarrytown and all the noted history of early America come to our minds. We pass West Point and the wonderful palisades towering 200-300 ft above us perpendicularly. We see water falling over these great cliffs a sheer drop of 150 ft All wonderful-all sublime. One decides it is the grandest scenery in the United States.
But Paine, I have gone

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1200 miles in boats up the Columbia. If the Hudson is beautiful the Columbia is magnificent. Hudson is bare 3 miles at its mouth in width. At Astoria the Col. is 15 miles wide. The Hudson is a thin line of water. Yet Ocean steamers plow up the Columbia 100 miles to Portland Ore and discharge their cargo and load and return without the aid of a tug.
I have seen 5 Ocean sailing vessels loading 100 miles from mouth of Col. with Fish for Europe. The fishing industry is enormous. I have seen a fishing fleet working in the Columbia of 3000 boats the longest

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fishing fleet in the world. I have stood as the fish wheel at the end of the boat turned over that it was filled so full of salmon that a man had to jump in and help the water power raise them out and was in that same boat when it caught 21 tons of fish in one day. The Hudson palisades tower 200 ft above up- the Columbia 2000 ft. One waterfall plunges 1200 ft straight down and trees on Hud. 50-60 ft height while Col. 100-250 ft.
Kyner showed me a gold piece of money of Portugal when Josephus was King

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of Portugal and Algeria in 1774. Two years before Declaration of Independence perfectly preserved. Asked when he got it. He said Dixon Nebr and my wonder grew still more. Asked if he knew how it came there on the railroad grade. He said yes he could explain it and did as follows-
In winter of '70 & '71 a Portuguese man of war sunk on Pacific coast and CP Ry [railway] & UP Ry brought 2 train loads of sailors & officers across to N.Y. They struck worst blizzard since Ry was built

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And one train was stalled for nearly 30 days while they dug it out near Dixon Nebr. Food being supplied from North Platte the other one was caught nearer Cheyenne . This accounts for loss of gold coin.
Speaking of well preserved coins he said a man in Sidney Nebr had perhaps the best Jewish shekel in existence and had refused $2000 for it from an eastern Masonic lodge. The coin being really of value of 30 cents silver. At last I went to sleep perhaps leaving him telling stories. Yes I remember one more. He was dining on
Long Island Sound at the