Читать книгу Oregon, the Picturesque. A Book of Rambles in the Oregon Country and in the Wilds of Northern California онлайн

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Though the trouble with the car was trifling, much time was consumed by our garage expert in locating it and still more in dissuading him from making a three-days’ job of it by tearing the machine to pieces, which he evinced a lively desire to do. A threat to remove the car to the garage on the hill, however, proved efficacious and by the middle of the afternoon he pronounced the job complete. And here we may pause to remark that before we reached Tahoe we had more serious trouble with this miserable car, which we shall pass over for the double reason that a recital would vex us with harrowing memories and be of no interest to the reader. We only registered a silent, solemn vow with good St. Christopher, the patron saint of all travelers, that our next tour should be made in our own car and we fulfilled our vow a year later in the long jaunt to Portland and return covered by this book.

As it was too late in the day to continue our journey after the car was ready, we contented ourselves with driving about town. The hotel people especially urged us not to miss the view from a second hill which dominated the new town and upon which may be found the homes of Auburn’s Four Hundred. A truly magnificent outlook greeted us from this hillcrest—a far-reaching panorama of the canyon of the American River, intersected by the gleaming stream more than a thousand feet beneath. On either side of the river we beheld range upon range of wooded hills stretching away to the blue haze of the horizon, the rugged wall of the Sierras looming dimly in the far distance. From our point of vantage, we could see the broad vale of the Sacramento to the westward, and, nearer at hand, the foothills intersected by the pleasant valleys with orchards and cultivated fields, dotted here and there with white ranch houses.