ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-FIFTH PARALLEL. 77 
FUEL. 
From longitude 97° to the Pecos valley, 540 miles, there will probably be sufficient fuel for 
working parties, and perhaps for 200 miles of this distance sufficient for railroad use might be 
found, but not for the remaining 350 miles. Between the Pecos and the Rocky mountains, 
100 miles; across the valley of the Rio Grande, 150 miles; from the Sierra Madre to San 
Francisco mountain, 250 miles, sufficient fuel for working parties will probably be found with- 
out excessive cost. As it can be brought from the Mogoyon mountains to various points on the 
Colorado Chiquito, and exists-at the extremities of these spaces, this portion of the route may 
be considered amply provided with fuel. Over the space of 120 miles from San Francisco 
mountain to the Aztec Pass, a sufficiency for railroad purposes will be found at convenient dis- 
tances. From the Aztec Pass to the Sierra Nevada, 420 miles, no fuel for railroad purposes 
will be found, and that for working-parties will be scanty in some places. From the point 
of leaving the Colorado to the Mohave river, 115 miles, no fuel is to be had. 
It is reported that coal exists in several localities in the Rocky mountains, both east 
and west of the Rio Grande, near this route, but there is no positive and reliable information 
that it has been found in sufficient quantities for profitable mining. 
As coal for locomotive uses will bear transportation 3.5 times as far as wood, the supplies of 
fuel for the 350 miles east of the Rio Grande can be had from the coal-fields of Delaware 
mountain; that for the space of 540 miles east of the Sierra Nevada, from the Pacific ports, 
the mean distance to which it must be transported in the latter case being 260 or 270 miles. 
These are the only two portions of the route which cannot be readily supplied from convenient 
distances on the route. 
Fuel forms about one-fifth the yearly expense of maintaining and working a railroad. 
WATER, 
The exact distances over which water is not found at certain seasons, or permanently, are 
not stated. It does not appear, however, that a resort to unusual means will be necessary east 
of 100° longitude. Between that and the Pacific there are spaces destitute of it, where, 
from the known character of the geological structure, there is no doubt that sufficient supplies 
can be obtained either by deep common wells, artesian wells, or reservoirs. It is better sup- 
plied with water than the route of the 32d parallel, and from the Rio Grande to Santa Maria 
river there are supplies of timber and fuel on the line, which the other route is deficient in. 
These larger supplies of timber and water west of the Rio Grande are attained at the expense 
of great elevation and somewhat rugged ground. 
The Galesteo Pass in the rocky mountains and the passes in the Sierre Madre being wide 
openings, or valleys, rather than mountain passes, no difficulty need be apprehended from 
snows, even if it fell to greater depths than those known, Over the remainder of the route 
no difficulty from this cause is to be met with. 
ELEVATIONS, &C. 
The line rises gradually from the eastern terminus, and on Pajarito creek, 705 miles from 
Fort Smith, has attained an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea, which elevation it does not 
descend to again (except for a short distance) for a space of over 600 miles, and until on the 
descent to the Colorado of the West. It passes the Rocky mountains at an elevation of 
7,000 feet, the Sierra Madre at 8,000 feet, the foot of San Francisco mountain at 7,450 feet, 
the Aztec Pass at about 6,000 feet, the Bie between the Great Basin and the Colorado at 
5,300 feet, and the Cajon ‘Pass by a tunnel 4,000 feet above the sea. 
The sum of the ascents from San Pedro to Fort Smith is 24,641 feet, of descents 24,171 
feet—equivalent, in the cost of working the road, to an feed ignores distance of 924, 
