deceitful, as is not unfrequently the case when cities are viewed from a distance. Situated on a rising ground, Omaha appears to be a city with fine streets and stately buildings. Seen more closely, the streets are found to be straggling and the buildings common-place, with but few exceptions. One of the disenchantments for which the traveller by this line must be prepared, occurs when he has to be transported across the Missouri from Council Bluffs to Omaha. The accounts he may have read of palace cars running through from New York to San Francisco must have led him to underrate the discomforts to be faced and borne. One of these is changing from car to car and rail to rail. A short time ago I read in the New York Tribune a glowing account of the luxurious way in which a party had travelled without change of cars from Sacramento to New York. That this was the rare exception I learned before leaving Chicago; but I did not know that the arrangements were still incomplete for transporting passengers in comfort across the Missouri River, and my ignorance was shared by many of my fellowpassengers. On arriving at Council Bluffs, we found omnibuses in waiting at the station. The morning was cold and raw. But a small proportion of the passengers could get inside seats, the re

mainder having the option of either sitting on the roof among the luggage, or else being left behind. In itself the seat on the roof was not objectionable, provided the time occupied were brief. As nearly an hour was thus spent, the feeling of satisfaction at having got a seat at all was supplanted by a feeling of annoyance at the treatment received. Through deep ruts in the mud the omnibus was slowly drawn by four horses to the river's bank, and thence on to the deck of a flat-bottomed steamer. Seated there, a good view was had of the Missouri. It has been called mighty, which it doubtless is, considered as a stream, yet the appellation of Big Muddy,' which is current here, is the one which more truthfully characterises it. The banks are masses of dark mud, resembling the heights which line the sea coast at Cromer, in Norfolk, and just as every high tide undermines and crumbles away the latter, so does the river's current sweep away portions of the former. The peculiarity of the Missouri is the shifting character of its current. Now and then it suddenly abandons its old bed, scooping out a new one an hundred yards distant. A fellow-traveller who had seen it a month previously said that since then the river had shifted its course, and that what was now a vast bed of mud had then formed the river's

channel. The erratic career of this river is giving sad trouble to the railway company. There is no certainty that any particular spot chosen for the landing-stage will continue available for the purpose from hour to hour and from day to day. There is a plan for erecting a bridge over the Missouri, but the difficulty of finding a solid foundation has hitherto proved insurmountable. The bed and banks of the river are quicksands of great depth. These physical obstacles will probably be overcome, but the cost of success must assuredly be heavy. Moreover, the question of labour is one which adds an element of complication to the problem. It is proposed to bring Chinamen from California in order to build the bridge. To this the Irishmen already employed make vigorous objections, threatening terrible things should their protests be unheeded. There is too much reason to fear that when the unoffending Chinamen arrive they will be the victims of dastardly outrages.

The first thing which catches the eye on reaching the western bank of the river is a small shanty in which liquors are sold. On the one side are the words, First Chance;' on the other, Last Chance.' Regardless of the risk of getting some vile compound bearing the name of whisky, many rushed to avail themselves of the opportunity, and

the enterprising proprietor had reason to congratulate himself on having founded his bar on Missouri mud. Through this mud the omnibus laboured slowly, the outside passengers being advised by the driver to move about from one side of the roof to another, in order to guard against upsetting the overladen vehicle. A general feeling of relief was manifested when the station of the Union Pacific Railway was reached. From this point the traveller really begins his trip over the great railway which Americans justly class among the grandest and most wonderful achievements of modern times.

V.

OVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

OMAHA is one of those American cities which seem to spring up, flourish, and wax great in the twinkling of an eye. Its history dates from 1854. In that year a few squatters fixed their residence in this section of what was then the Territory of Nebraska, which was regarded as in the heart of the Far West. Situated on the bank of the Missouri River, at a point almost equidistant between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Omaha had many natural advantages, and these have been turned to profitable account since the Pacific Railway has furnished the opportunity. Certain it is that the city's prospects are bright. In 1860 the population did not exceed 1,883; now the number of inhabitants is estimated at 20,000. There are many manufactories within its bounds, one distillery, and several breweries. In the year 1868-9 the sales of the merchants were upwards of a million and a quarter sterling. Like most American cities it possesses two daily newspapers,