ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-SECOND PARALLEL. 87 
13 miles, at 60 feet per mile, 
Bec 1Ro « 
7 (73 W5 ce 
to the summit, 2,808 feet above the sea. Descending to the town of San Bernardino, we have— 
84 miles, at 72 feet per mile. 
may) ye OG 79 Ge 
9 66 77 73 
igs} Ot 27/ CC 
4 “Gc HS) 66 
64 6c 4] 66 
near the town of San Bernardino, at an elevation of 1,120 feet above the sea. 
The above enumeration is made to show that practicable grades can be had by following the 
natural slopes of the ground without cutting and filling, or side location, and therefore without 
great expense. The greatest grade is 132 feet per mile, for a distance of 3$ miles. They can 
be modified, however, and reduced, without rock-cutting, so as not to exceed, perhaps, 80 feet 
per mile. Abundance of water can be got by digging wells, either on the pass or on the Pacific 
slopes. The San Bernardino and San Gorgonio mountains, north and south of the pass, 9,000 
and 6,000 feet high, afford pine and fir timber at about one quarter the distance up their 
slopes. On these two mountains the growth of timber is thick, consisting mostly of pine and fir. 
Should it be considered necessary to connect the harbor of San Diego (distant about 120 miles) 
with this pass, the general features of the country between it and San Luis Rey (about 75 miles) 
are favorable to the construction of a railroad. It may be described as a great plain, with nume- 
rous hills from 500 to 1,000 feet in height, irregularly distributed on its surface, sometimes 
assuming the form of a range several miles in extent, between and around which a road may be 
carried with favorable grades without expensive cutting and filling. It is plentifully supplied 
with water and tuel and good building-stone. From San Luis Rey to San Diego (about 40 
or 45 miles) the unfavorable topographical feature along the coast is the numerous, intricate, deep 
gullies cut into the plain by its drainage, and which it would be necessary to bridge—the average 
width to be bridged being between 100 feet and 200 feet; the bridging might amount to one- 
fifth or one-tenth of the whole distance. 
We have now reached the Pacific slopes and harbors which will at least afford great facilities 
in the construction of the road eastward, and which should be connected with it. The harbor of 
San Diego is excellent, but not capacious. The harbor of San Pedro is entirely open to the 
south and southeast, the quarter from which the sudden storms and dangerous winds of the winter 
come. Should it be selected as the depot from which the materials and supplies for the con- 
struction of the road eastward to the Rio Grande are to be drawn, the question of constructing 
a breakwater for protection against the winter southeast storms should be considered. It would 
be in a depth of 30 feet. 
But the great object of the Pacific railroad will not be accomplished unless a connected line 
can be had to the best harbor on its coast, that of San Francisco. 
If a practicable pass exists leading from the plains of Los Angeles to the valley of the Salinas 
river, it will give the most direct route, and that which will probably require the least ascent. 
A party is now making the explorations and surveys to solve this question. With the present 
information, San Francisco must be reached by crossing the Coast range to the Great Basin, 
passing over its southwestern extremity, (a nearly horizontal plain,) then crossing the Sierra Ne- 
vada and descending into the Tulares valley. From the western extremity of the San Gorgonio 
Pass two routes present themselves by which we may cross the Coast range and reach the 
Great Basin. The nearest is the Cajon Pass, which, beginning at the Pacific side, has, over the 
