62 ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-FIRST AND FORTY-SECOND PARALLELS. 
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 miles; making the 
whole distance from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Reading, on the Sacramento, 2,084 miles, 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. 
TIMBER, BUILDING MATERIALS, &C. 
Pine and fir are found on the Uinta mountains and terrace, and pine upon the Wahsatch 
mountains. Dense forests, furnishing timber of the best quality, cover the western slopes of 
the Sierra Nevada; the distance between these points of supply being about 700 miles. Lieu- 
tenant Beckwith is of opinion that the scattered growth of cedar upon the Basin mountains, 
between the Great Salt lake and the Sierra Nevada, is sufficiently large for ties, and ‘‘al- 
though it will require transporting for long distances, it is believed to be sufficiently abundant 
for the construction of the road.”’ 
Should this growth be found unsuitable for ties—and it has been so considered by me, in 
the review of the route near the 35th parallel—ties, as well as other lumber required for this 
portion of the route, must come from the Wahsatch or Uinta mountains on the east. and the 
western slope of the Sierra Nevada—the distances apart of these points being, as above stated, 
about 700 miles. 
FUEL. 
Should the coal beds in the Great Plain of Green river prove to be of such quality and extent 
as to admit of their being profitably worked, they will supply fuel for the use of the road for 
600 miles west of that plain, or for as much more of the remaining 230 miles to the western 
slope of the Sierra Nevada as may be found economical, The cedar growth of the Great 
Basin could furnish but a very small supply of fuel. 
The distance between the supply of coal near Fort Leavenworth and that of Green river 
may be set down at 800 miles, and to the cost of mining must be added that of transportation 
for a mean distance of 200 miles over the railroad, for the mean cost of the coal throughout 
this distance of 800 miles. 
This estimate does not take into account the changes in the physical condition of the country 
that the construction of a railroad would effect on this as upon all other routes. When the 
annual burning of the prairies ceases, it is thought that trees will be found in many places now 
destitute of them—that a greater amount of precipitation will then take place, the forest 
growth be extended, and thus not only supplies of lumber, fuel, &c., be found where none 
now exist, but a gradual amelioration of soil likewise take place. 
SNOW—CLIMATE, 
The information respecting the amount of snow to be met with in the ravines of the mount- 
ain passes, and caiions, and respecting the winter climate of these portions of the route, is 
meagre. Apparently, Lieutenant Beckwith does not apprehend unusual difficulties m the 
working of a railroad on the route from this cause. That the winter is long and severe on 
the most elevated portions, especially on the great plateau and divide between the waters of 
Green river and the Great Salt lake, is to be inferred from the fact that when Lieutenant Beck- 
