seven in the morning
The one hundred and twenty miles between these cities were accomplished in six hours . Towards midnight , while fast asleep , the travelers passed through Sacramento ; so that they saw nothing of that important place , the seat of the state government , with its fine quays , its broad streets , its noble hotels , squares and churches . The train , on leaving Sacramento , and passing the junction , Roclin , Auburn and Colfax , entered the range of the Sierra Nevada . ` Cisco was reached at seven in the morning ; and an hour later the dormitory was transformed into an ordinary car , and the travelers could observe the picturesque beauties of the mountain region through which they were steaming . The railway track wound in and out among the passes , now approaching the mountainsides , now suspended over precipices , avoiding abrupt angles by bold curves , plunging into narrow defiles , which seemed to have no outlet . The locomotive , its great funnel emitting a weird light , with its sharp bell , and its cowcatcher extended like a spur , mingled its shrieks and bellowings with the noise of torrents and cascades , and twined its smoke among the branches of the gigantic pines . There were few or no bridges or tunnels on the route .