ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY FIRST AND FORTY-SECOND PARALLELS. 15 
first rapid. A cut is proposed at the summit, 120 feet deep, running out to the surface at 
either end, making a length of four miles, ana a grade of 124 feet to the mile for 2.4 miles. 
It may be preferable to tunnel or to cut only one-half the depth proposed. The open plain 
of Round valley, on the Sacramento, is reached 15 miles from the summit, (difference of eleva- 
tion 1,300 feet,) located for one-half that distance on the mountain side, which is broken by 
ravines, 
The route now lies over the smooth plain of Round valley for 15 miles, to the head of the 
first cation on the Sacramento. This cation is a formidable obstacle to be overcome. Its entire 
length is nearly 14 miles, succeeded by an open valley of similar extent, which is followed 
by a second cation, nine miles in length, of the same character as the first. From the mouth 
of Canoe creek, four miles below the foot of the second canon, for the space of 96 miles the 
course of the Sacramento lies entirely through heavily-timbered mountains, which rise precipi- 
tously from the river-banks to the height of from 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the stream. Its 
course is very sinuous, with all varieties of curves greater than a right-angle, and is seldom 
entirely straight for two miles consecutively. The construction of this portion of the route, 136 
miles in length, would be one of no ordinary difficulty or expense under the most favorable 
circumstances of dense population, and the facilities of railroad construction which it would 
afford. It is impossible, with the data presented, to form a reliable opinion of its probable 
cost. 
Seventeen miles above Fort Reading the open valley of the Sacramento is attained, over 
which a railroad may be carried to the bay of San Francisco, 250 or 300 miles distant. 
The distance from Fort Bridger to Fort Reading by the line of Lieutenant Beckwith’s profile 
is 1,012 miles; from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Bridger, 1,072 
distance from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Reading, on the eam 4084 es and to 
Benicia 2,264 miles. 
The distance from Council Bluffs to Benicia by the above route is 2,134 miles. 
Using the line along which the route can be located in the Great Basin, about 103 miles 
shorter than that travelled, the distances become, from Fort Bridger to Fort Reading, 909 
miles; from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Reading, 1,980 miles; and to Benicia, 2,161 miles. 
The distance from Council Bluffs to Benicia becomes 2,031 miles. 
The points of supply for ties, lumber, &c., are at distances apart of 500, 300, 200, and 
700 miles, as timber is only found at the eastern extremity of the route, on the Black Hills, 
Wind River mountains, the Uinta and Wahsatch mountains, and on the western slopes of 
the Sierra Nevada. The scattered growth of cedar upon the Basin mountains may, perhaps, 
be found available for ties. 
Should the coal-beds of Green river prove to be of such quality and extent as to admit of 
being profitably mined, the points of supply of fuel—the same as those just designated for 
lumber—will be importantly increased. Coal may then be had for nearly the cost of mining 
it at the eastern terminus of the road, for cost of mining near its middle, and at its western 
terminus for the cost of mining, and freight to that point from Puget sound. 
Fuel for working-parties will generally be found contiguous to the route. 
The winter climate is known to be severe on the plains east of the Rocky mountains in 
this latitude. That it is more severe, and of long duration, upon the great table-land of 
the Rocky mountains, is to be inferred. Lieut. Beckwith found the sun had not yet begun 
to melt the snow upon the terrace divide on the western border of the plateau, and about 
1,000 feet above it, when he crossed the former, on the 10th April. The snow was here from 
twelve to sixteen ieee deep, and had oduinnuictechs in deep drifts on the northeast slopes of 
the hills and ravines. Captain Stansbury found the Uinta mountains covered with snow for a 
considerable distance from their summits on the 19th August. The quantity of snow that 
falls upon the great undulating plain between Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger is not exactly 
known. It ig probable that no unusual difficulty may be apprehended from it on this plain, 
