Kane.] ^^-J [Jan. 19, 



soon ohserved endeavoring to resume its direct forthright, and before long 

 is found in line with itself, so to speak, adopting the course of the valley of 

 the Salado (c d). The Salado, I will also halt to point out, runs parallel 

 to a certain line of heights which has been recommended as the natural 

 boundary line between the United States and the North-east Provinces of 

 Mexico (C D). 



Reflecting on the significance of such a fact as the Rio Grande, you per- 

 ceive how natural a thing it was for me to ask myself: "Why should not a 

 new route for a transcontinental rail way be discovered here — not fi^r from 

 the path of the great water way — through upper Mexico? This led me to 

 examine, as I have said, the different passes or depressions of the mis- 

 named Sierra, furnishing inclines leading up to the elevation of the Great 

 Table. I looked for them into or through the Sierra, it is true, but com- 

 paratively near the river, where its elevation is diminished, and what is 

 left of it is broken up. I am rewarded by having found two, and probably 

 three. Passes, preferable to those heretofore recommended to the Engineer. 



I am positive now that I can indicate the true line for the railroad, south 

 of the Union Pacific, from the United States to the Pacific Ocean ; and the 

 best of it is that the short cut, B F, is the one which provides the most 

 moderate gradients. From San Antonio, as your starting point, make your 

 shortest cut for Mazatlan, and j^ou will not be very far from either of these 

 two lines. 



The routes described in this paper both pass through the rich agricul- 

 tural Laguna country, and through the richer Durango mining one, and 

 are both singularly cheap of construction. Neither of them is deflected 

 noticealily from the straight line, except as the Pacific is approached, where, 

 to avoid engineering obstacles (less expensive ones, though, than those 

 which the California Central R. R. has overcome), I recommend turning 

 down into the State of Jalisco, through the northern part of tiie District of 

 Tepic. There tlie Sierra Nevada, E F, coming from the north west, lowers 

 as the East Branch of the Sierra Madre does in Northern Coahuila. To 

 obtain a gentle slope without paying for it, I do not attack, but flank the 

 Snowy Range. 



Next in interest to these inter-oceanic railroad data (perhaps, too, after 

 certain military questions unavoidably associated with the same) I should, 

 perhaps, advert to the results of a visit to the countrj^ below the upper 

 bend of tlie Rio Bravo, marked on the maps as Terreno Desconocido and 

 Territorio Non Explorado. I tliought it would be a rare field for original 

 exploration, but it proved to have been well known to the Spaniards, who 

 have left roads, military earlhworks, mineral shafts, and other evidences 

 of their presence there. The names of old Spanish settlements might be 

 sprinkled over all this unoccui^ied space (x to y, and v to z). The correc- 

 tion of such an error as this should appear at least in our children's school 

 atlases. I could occupy the evening in enumerating others, but will close 

 with citing two hardly less striking. The Bolson de Majnmi, here, which 

 covers so large a space on the maps, should properly be restricted to a 



