40 ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-SEVENTH AND FORTY-NINTH PARALLELS. 
sissippi. The road passes successively through a wooded and fertile prairie country, and crosses 
the tributaries of the Minnesota river at their sources. From the Mississippi to the Bois des 
Sioux the distance is 110 miles; the rise is about 750 feet; the grades generally ten feet per 
mile, though occasionally thirty feet. Lumber and stone are to be supplied from the Mississippi 
and west of it; the excavation and embankments are light. 
The line passes for 40 miles over the almost absolute plain of the Bois des Sioux, leaving 
its western edge near and north of Dead Colt Hillock, here entering the rolling prairie, keep- 
ing south of the Shayenne river, whose valley is 150 to 200 feet below the general level of 
the prairie, and along the dividing ridge between it and the Riviére 4 Jacques; then crossing 
the latter river at a width of 120 feet, it is directed towards the valley of Mouse river, bounded 
on the south by the high plateau of the Coteau du Missouri. Keeping along the base of the 
coteau, to avoid the deep coulées of Mouse river,* and its tributary, Riviére des Lacs, the coteau 
is turned, near the head of the latter river, by the Grande Coulée, and with a grade not exceed- 
ing 40 feet per mile, the line passes to the bottom lands of the Missouri, near the mouth of 
Big Muddy river, about 30 miles west of Fort Union. Steamboats of two-feet draught can 
at all times, when not obstructed by ice, ascend the Missouri to Fort Union, the trip up from 
St. Louis occupying 42 days, and back 17 days. The total rise in this distance (about 400 
miles) from the prairie of the Bois des Sioux to the Missouri is 700 feet. From Dead Colt 
Hillock to the valley of Mouse river, 200 miles, the country is in part undulating, rising 
gradually. 
The earth-work from the Mississippi to the Missouri will be neither heavy nor expensive, and 
no rock excavation, except in crossing the ‘‘divide into the valley of the Missouri. The 
grades need not exceed 30 feet per mile, and will rarely be so great.” 
For 400 miles of this portion of the route, wood for building and fuel (if wood be used for, 
it) must be obtained from the Red River of the North, and from the bottom lands of Mouse 
river. But little stone for masonry is needed. Excellent sandstone can be obtained in the 
vicinity of the Butte de Maison du Chien, near which the line enters the valley of Mouse river. 
Materials for good bricks are to be obtained on Red, Bois des Sioux, Shayenne, and Mouse 
rivers. From Camp Guthrie, on the Shayenne, to the Mouse River valley, (about 150 miles,) 
nearly one-half the small ponds and lakes are brackish and salt. The fresh-water ponds are, 
however, constantly interspersed and more abundant, and “occur quite as often as is desirable 
either for travelling or railroad purposes. With this abundant supply, no unusual construe- 
tion or expense will be required in establishing watering places.’’—Governor Stevens’s report. 
Mr. Lander, the estimating engineer, says, ‘‘the portion extending through the salt-water 
region—the one under consideration—will need particular attention regarding a supply of 
pure water for the use of engines. The proper mode of overcoming this difficulty will be by 
extending an aqueduct along the line of the road from the lakes upon the Grand Coteau 
du Missouri.’’ An estimate for this purpose is made, and, including the cost of planting 
640 acres of trees every 20 miles over — miles of the route, amounts to $2,000,000. 
Should supplies of water be needed at points where it could not be furnished by the usual 
means, because of the small quantity of rain that falls, artesian wells might prove more 
economical, if the geological formations indicate their feasibility. 
The position of the northern part of the Grande Coulée, by which the route leaves the 
valley of Riviére des Lacs and enters that of the Missouri, has been determined from an 
estimated distance of twenty miles from the odometer line. As represented upon the map, 
it approaches so close to the 49th parallel (about two miles from it) that, without more 
accurate determination, it cannot be known whether the route, as here projected, may not pass 
over British territory. 
* Mouse river, next to the Red River of the North, is the most important river on the route between the Mississippi and 
Missouri. It flows in a deep, wide valley 200 feet below the prairie-level, with a wooded bottom from one-half to two miles 
wide, its high and steep banks being cut by deep coulées extending ten and fifteen miles into the prairie. 
