If young Peter Girenas can get enough backing, then he will lead an exploratory expedition into the interior of the North American continent. And he thinks that he can do it. Chapter Three ends:
"He turned west. Hills rose on the edge of sight, blue and dreaming. Hills and mountains, the rivers like inland seas and the plains full of buffalo, Alder Gulch and its gold...grizzlies and Indians and wolves, oh, my!" (p. 54)
Three (at least) points of interest in this paragraph:
West! - this exploration happened in our universe and will now happen in a second universe;
the use of the word "dreaming";
the concluding phase. See here.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm aware of how you know the origins of that line, but Peter Girenas was parodying one of the most famous lines from the American film, "The Wizard of Oz,": "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"
Sean
One thought I had when reading "Against the Tide of Years" is that the Nantucketers should have been making birch bark canoes for exploring the eastern & northern 3/4 of N. America. Do it almost the way it was done in the 'original' time line. I wonder how good the canoes of the Amerindians of 1200 BC were?
They should take steamboats up rivers to the first set of rapids and then portage the canoes around rapids. Then follow the canoe routes known from any books about the subject in the Nantucket library & local guides.
Kaor, Jim!
Good points. But I don't think Nantucket even had, as yet, many steam powered ships. They were stretched very THIN at the time. So Peter Girenas' exploratory expedition was out fitted on the cheap.
Ad astra! Sean
The expedition took steamboat up the Hudson to the first rapids near Albany then pack horse west up the Mohawk. Birch bark canoe would have been even cheaper for exploring to somewhat west of the Mississippi, but pack horse is what is needed for the more arid regions to the west.
I can see that this suboptimal choice for exploring the eastern half of N. America was needed for plot reasons. Get Peter Girenas to California so he & his party can oppose the Tartessans there.
Kaor, Jim
The problem, for me, is I still wonder if Peter Girenas and his friends defeated the Tartessians in California in ways that might have looked too implausibly easy.
Ad astra! Sean
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