A Study in Scarlet — page 99: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PART If. The Country of the Saints. CHAPTER I. ON THE GREAT ALKALI PLAIN. In the central portion of the great North American Continent there lies an arid and repulsive desert, which for many a long year served as a barrier against the advance of civilization. From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south, is a region of desolation and silence. Nor is Nature always in one mood through- out this grim district. It comprises snow-capped and lofty mountains, and dark and gloomy valleys. There are swift-flowing rivers which dash through jagged can- yons; and there are enormous plains, which in winter are white with snow, and in summer are gray with the saline alkali dust. ‘They all preserve, however, the com- men characteristics of barrenness, inhospitality, and misery. There are no inhabitants of this land of despair. A band of Pawnees or of Blackfeet may occasionally tra- verse it in order to reach other hunting-grounds, but the 92. (C(O) an JOOKSHGE