{"product_id":"2940013446960","title":"The White Chief","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeep in the interior of the American Continent--more than a thousand\u003cbr\u003emiles from the shores of any sea--lies our scene.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eClimb with me yonder mountain, and let us look from its summit of snow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe have reached its highest ridge.  What do we behold?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the north a chaos of mountains, that continues on through thirty\u003cbr\u003eparallels to the shores of the Arctic Sea!  On the south, the same\u003cbr\u003emountains,--here running in separate sierras, and there knotting with\u003cbr\u003eeach other.  On the west, mountains again, profiled along the sky, and\u003cbr\u003ealternating with broad tables that stretch between their bases.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow turn we around, and look eastward.  Not a mountain to be seen!  Far\u003cbr\u003eas the eye can reach, and a thousand miles farther, not a mountain.\u003cbr\u003eYonder dark line rising above the plain is but the rocky brow of another\u003cbr\u003eplain--a _steppe_ of higher elevation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere are we?  On what summit are we standing?  On the Sierra Blanca,\u003cbr\u003eknown to the hunter as the \"Spanish Peaks.\"  We are upon the western rim\u003cbr\u003eof the _Grand Prairie_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLooking eastward, the eye discovers no signs of civilisation.  There\u003cbr\u003e_are_ none within a month's journeying.  North and south,--mountains,\u003cbr\u003emountains.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWestward, it is different.  Through the telescope we can see cultivated\u003cbr\u003efields afar off,--a mere strip along the banks of a shining river.\u003cbr\u003eThose are the settlements of Nuevo Mexico, an oasis irrigated by the Rio\u003cbr\u003edel Norte.  The scene of our story lies not there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFace once more to the eastward, and you have it before you.  The\u003cbr\u003emountain upon which we stand has its base upon a level plain that\u003cbr\u003eexpands far to the east.  There are no foot-hills.  The plain and the\u003cbr\u003emountain touch, and at a single step you pass from the naked turf of the\u003cbr\u003eone to the rocky and pine-clad declivities of the other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe aspect of the plain is varied.  In some places it is green, where\u003cbr\u003ethe gramma-grass has formed a sward; but in most parts it is sterile as\u003cbr\u003ethe Sahara.  Here it appears brown, where the sun-parched earth is bare;\u003cbr\u003ethere it is of a sandy, yellowish hue; and yonder the salt effervescence\u003cbr\u003erenders it as white as the snow upon which we stand.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079449559280,"sku":"2940013446960","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013446960_p0.jpg?v=1763581406","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013446960","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}