248 JOHN C. FREMONT. 



here almost in juxtaposition, connecting the plain 

 country on either side by short passages five to eigh 

 miles long. The mountains which they perforate 

 constitute the only obstruction, and are the only 

 break in the plane or valley line of road from the 

 frontier of Missouri to the summit-hills of the Kocky 

 Mountains, a distance of about eight hundred and 

 fifty miles, or more than half-way to the San Joaquin 

 Valley. Entering one of these passes from the 

 eastern plain, a distance of about one mile upon 

 a wagon-road, already travelled by wagons, com- 

 mands an open view of the broad Valley of San Luis 

 and the great range of San Juan beyond on its west- 

 ern side. I here connected the line of the present 

 expedition with one explored in 1848-49 from the 

 mouth of the Kansas to this point; and the results 

 of both will be embodied in a full report. 



"At this place the line entered the middle section, 

 and continued its western course over an open valley- 

 country, admirably adapted for settlement, across 

 the San Luis Valley, and up the flat bottom-lands 

 of the Sahwatch to the heights of the central ridge 

 of the Rocky Mountains. Across those wooded 

 heights, wooded and grass-covered up to and over 

 their rounded summits, to the Choocha-to-pe Pass, 

 the line followed an open, easy wagon-way, such 

 as is usual to a rolling gountry. On the high sum- 



