midday
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 . These immense troops frequently oppose an impassable barrier to the trains , for they cross the track in close array in thousands and thousands , occupying several hours in their passage .