About nine o'clock
The track followed all the caprices of the mountains , at times suspended over a precipice , boldly rounding angles , penetrating narrow gorges which had apparently no outlet . The engine , with fire gleaming from the grate and black smoke issuing from its funnel , the warning-bell ringing , the `` cow-catcher '' extending like a spur , mingled its whistlings and snortings with the roar of torrents and waterfalls , and twining its black smoke around the stems of the pine-trees . There are few tunnels or bridges on this portion of the route , for the line winds round the sides of the mountains and does not penetrate them . About nine o'clock the train entered the State of Nevada by the Carson Valley , still proceeding in a north-easterly direction . At midday the train quitted Reno , where it had stopped twenty minutes for luncheon . After lunch the passengers took their places in the car again , and admired the scenery . Sometimes great troops of buffaloes were massed like an immense moveable dam on the horizon .