Bolan Pass

“ The Harnai route, although longer, is the one adopted for all ordinary traffic, the Bolan loop being reserved for emergencies. At the Khundilani gorge of the Bolan route conglomerate cliffs enclose the valley rising to a height of 800 ft., and at Sir-i-Bolan the passage between the limestone rocks hardly admits of three persons riding abreast. The temperature of the pass in summer is very high, whereas in winter, near its head, the cold is extreme, and the ice-cold wind rushing down the narrow outlet becomes destructive to life. ”

“ While the first and second divisions had been gaining victories in the Khyber and Khurum valleys, the column under General Stewart had met with difficulties of another kind. Between the Indus, and the foot of the range of mountains through which the Bolan Pass leads to the lofty plateau land above, a great waste of sand stretches. In the wet season, this tract of country is overflowed by the Indus. In the dry season it is a parched and bare desert, with its wells few and far apart. ”

“ These massive barriers have peaks of great height, culminating in the Takht-i-Suliman or Throne of Solomon, 11,317 ft. above the level of the sea. But the mountain wall is pierced at the corner where it strikes southwards from the Himalayas by an opening through which the Kabul river flows into India. An adjacent opening, the Khyber Pass, the Kurram Pass to the south of it, the Gomal Pass near Dera Ismail Khan, the Tochi Pass between the two last-named, and the famous Bolan Pass still farther south, furnish the gateways between India and Afghanistan. ”

“ A peculiar military system was found necessary in this division, owing to the large proportion of semi-civilised marauders among the inhabitants. The western frontier is hilly throughout, being formed of the Indian Caucasus and the Suliman Range, and being pierced by only a few roads, of which the Khyber Pass and the Bolan Pass are the most famous. These passes and roads are for the most part under the control of hardy mountaineers, who care very little for any regular governments, whether Afghan, Sikh, or British, and who require constant watching. ”

“ The walls of the ravine grew steeper, and across it fallen trees occasionally blocked the way. Presently it bent sharply to the left, so that we were once more headed northward, and then it widened into an amphitheatre half a mile in width, wholly surrounded by steep and rocky sides. The old trail was again lost, and Berry declared that out of this pocket there was no outlet save over the towering ridge at the north. The story of the man and woman in a sleigh, who had once crossed 53 this frowning barrier, alone sustained our hopes of finding a pass which could be opened to wheels. ”

“ In another mile they reached the pinnacle, where Blount realised the true nature and surroundings of this Alpine Pass. Such indeed it proved to be. A narrow pathway, looking down on either side, upon fathomless glens, with so abrupt a drop that it seemed as if the wind, now rising, might blow them off their exposed perch.
The trees which grew at the depths below, though in reality tall and massive eucalypts, appeared scarce larger than berry bushes.
The wedge-tailed eagles soared above and around. ”

“ There are but few men who would have dared to have undertaken such a task alone. Unarmed he drove fifty miles over a lonely road, by the very spot where a former agent, A. J. Bolan, was bru- tally murdered in cold blood by a band of his own Indians, and to a camp of renegades collected from the various tribes throughout the country and numbering between one a'nd two hundred men, and single-handed forcibly takes his man from their midst, handcuffs him and drives away. ”

“ Taking fresh courage, our horse carried us over the fifteenth mile at racing speed. The road was level. On the right the flat, white intervale shone in the pale light as in distant ages the face of the great mountain lake shone in silent winter nights. Westward, across the end of the intervale, were Tripyramid, Kancamagus, and Osceola mountains; northward, Green’s Cliffs, Carrigain, Lowell, Owl’s Head, and Tremont Mountain stood shoulder to shoulder in double rank. Behind us, dark Bear Mountain concealed Moat, while spurs of Chocorua reached down to the road. ”

“ Leaving the party encamped I crossed the Lachlan and rode eight miles due south to Bolloon which proved to be the highest cone of a low ridge situated within the great bend of this river. I found it a valuable station for continuing my chain of triangles downwards, as from it Mounts Cunningham and Allan, Hurd's Peak, Peel's and Goulburn ranges, Mount Granard, etc. are all visible. We passed some lower hills belonging to the same chain, and of which the basis seemed to be the prevailing ferruginous sandstone. In my return to the camp I found the dogs had killed an emu. ”

“ By 1884, the year of Bollman’s death, [84] the age of intuitive design had been dead for a decade or longer.
Figure 8.—The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Potomac River crossing at Harpers Ferry, about 1860. Bollman’s iron “Winchester span” of 1851 is seen at the right end of Latrobe’s timber structure of 1836, which forms the body of the bridge. (Photo courtesy of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.)
The B. & O. was in every way a truly pioneer enterprise. It was the first practical railroad in America; the first to use an American locomotive; the first to cross the Alleghenies. ”

“ Below them, impending over a belt of country about ten miles north of me, was a very long but narrow cloud, black as ink, with a clean-cut lower edge as straight as a level. From it forked lightning was playing downward. The outlines of the mountains were singularly clear. I could see, beginning at the right, the Presidential Range, the Crawford Notch, Anderson, Nancy, Lowell, the Carrigain Notch, Carrigain; and then, partly obscured by rain, the Franconia Mountains and the nearer heights of Tripyramid and its neighbors. ”

“ For some miles past the hills had grown higher and higher upon either side, the valley floor narrower, the torrent less abundant; there now stood up before me the marshy slopes and the enormous forests of pine that forbid a passage south. Up through these the main road has been pierced, tortuous and at an even gradient mile after mile to the very top of the hill; for the Ballon d'Alsace is so shaped that it is impossible for the Moselle valley to communicate with the Gap of Belfort save by some track right over its summit. ”

“ So late as within living memory it was the regular track from the valley of the Gallego to that of Gabas. Now, the modern road, after careful survey, has been constructed to cross the mountain summit somewhat to the west, and a good three hundred feet higher than the old pass. Why was this? It was because the notch of Sallent had a very steep approach in the last few hundred yards upon either side, and the [45] minimum of effort, at any rate for wheeled vehicles of the modern type, was found in taking a lesser gradient to one side, although it involved a much higher climb. ”

“ Woe to the man who ventures into a “harricane”! Not content with the road which we had made and found over the ridge, we sought, as we turned homewards, to see whether another lumber road, which came into ours from the southeast, did not cross the ridge by an easier grade. Following it upward higher and higher, we came at last to an open ledge from which a beautiful view was gained. Northward of us frowned Bear Mountain, dark in its spruces. To its left were Lowell, Nancy, Anderson, and the rest of the proud retinue of Carrigain. ”

“ Mount Allan (Wollar of the natives) lay north-east by north, at a distance of 3 3/4 miles. It was not a conspicuous or commanding hill, but between it and our camp we this day discovered a feature of considerable importance. This was the Goobang creek of our former journey, to all appearance here as great a river as the Bogan and indeed its channel, where we formerly saw it, contained deep ponds of clear water at a season when the muddy holes of the Bogan had nearly failed us. ”

“ Above and beyond the intervale were the northern mountains which lock it in from the rest of the world,—Bear Mountain on the right, then Owl’s Head, Carrigain, Green’s Cliffs, Sugar Hill, and Kancamagus. The notch east of Carrigain is one of the grandest rifts in the White Mountain panorama. It is like a black gateway opened for storms and wailing winds to sweep through.
The black grove on its narrow tongue of land hanging between two gorges was alive with birds, and I fancied it to be their sleeping-place. Chickadees, kinglets, and a brown creeper were in possession and resented my intrusion. ”

“ Of the many roads which start northward from Bearcamp Water, every one is either warded off by the Sandwich range into the Saco or into the Pemigewasset valley, or else smothered in the dark forest-clad ravines between the mountain ridges. From Conway on the east to Campton and Thornton on the west, there is no rift in the mountain wall through which travel flows. There was a time, however, before the Civil War, when near the middle of the great barrier the human current found an outlet southward from the upper end of Swift River intervale to the Bearcamp Valley. ”

“ Tripyramid kept on his nightcap, and patches of mist clung to the dark precipice of Passaconaway. The mountains looked higher and more threatening than on previous days, and they seemed closer to us than when the sun shone. A whisper of falling drops and settling snow ruffled the morning calm. Nevertheless, patches of blue sky showed in the west, and once or twice a silvery spot in the clouds suggested the sun’s burning through. We went first to see our favorite flock of birds at the cattle-trough in the pasture. They were there in full force, nearly if not quite a hundred strong. ”

“ It includes the length of Bala lake and a goodly extent of Llyn Fyrnwy, and the outline of Aran Fawddwy shows up magnificently.
Passing along the ridge to the south of Benllyn we keep up at a high level for the whole distance of 11⁄2 mile to Aran Fawddwy, the greatest depression being less than 250 ft. below Benllyn. If we bear to the left, just dipping below the ridge, we pass along the foot of an overhanging mass of rock of considerable length that is undercut in a remarkable fashion. There are many places along it where one may shelter comfortably in bad weather. ”

“ Behind lay the remainder of the kitchen garden and an orchard, backed by a strip of meadowland that climbed rapidly toward the free moor with its whins and heather—a far-flung range of mountain given over to grouse and hardy sheep, and cleft by tiny ravines of exceeding beauty.
Across the village street stood some modern iron-roofed buildings, where Bolland kept his prize stock, and here was situated the real approach to the couple of hundred acres of rich arable land which he farmed. The house and rear pastures were his own ”

“ If you don’t strike this ‘cut,’ and there’s not more than a score or so of us mountain chaps as knows it, it would take a man days to cross over, and then he mightn’t do it.”
“What would happen to him?” asked Blount, feeling a natural curiosity to learn more of this weird region, differing so widely from any idea that he had ever gathered from descriptions of Australia.
“Well, he’d most likely get bushed, and have to turn back, though he mightn’t find it too easy to do that, or make where he come from. In winter time, if it come on to snow, he’d never get home at all. ”

“ This place together with Bolt Mountain on the Applegate River about seven miles southwest of Grants Pass, was named for John Bolt, a member of the firm of Kubli and Bolt, pioneer packers and merchants of southern Oregon.
BONANZA, Klamath County. Bonanza is a Spanish word meaning prosperity. This place is said to have been named because of a number of fine springs in the vicinity. Good water is always a source of prosperity in a country that needs irrigation.
BONER FLAT, Wallowa County. Boner Flat is in the Wallowa Mountains, in the east part of township 5 south, range 45 east. ”

“ Slowly our train climbed up the gentle grade to South Pass. But this thoroughfare over the backbone of the continent proved to be a disappointment, as it failed to present the striking characteristics of a mountain pass. In one respect, at least, its top is not unlike the North Pole, for it is admitted by Arctic explorers (Cook and Peary of course, always excepted) that they find it impossible to locate the Boreal end of the earth with exactness. ”

“ Bolon had investigated Indian depredations in the Yakima country and was returning to The Dalles when he was killed probably for the purpose of destroying evidences that would have led to punishment of friends or kin of the Indians who were accompanying him. Bolon's body, his horse and personal effects were burned. Aged Indians have pointed out the scene of the tragedy. Bolon was well liked by the Yakimas, and General Hazard Stevens, in his dedication address, said Bolon was their best friend among the whites. ”

“ But Halfert Bolin, walking between rows of cold peonies, regarded the morning with harsh approval and spoke.
“You have the brightness and flatness of a distracted virgin but your eyes are mildly opaque. The tinseled swiftness of a courtesan’s memoirs is yours but your heart is as shy as the clink of glass. You glow like an incoherent rhapsody over the peonies in this garden!”
A woman whose painted face was a lurid snarl tapped Bolin on the shoulder. ”