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REPORT. 
CHAPTER I. 
General Instructions and Arrangements. 
Wasuineton, D.C., June 80, 1854. 
Str: On the Sth of April of last year I was assigned to the charge of the Nerthern Pacific Rail- 
road Exploration and Survey, under the following instructions: 
“ War DEPARTMENT, 
“* Washington, April 8, 1853. 
“The War Department being directed by a recent act of Congress to survey the several routes 
of a railroad from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, it has been determined to explore 
and survey a route from the sources of the Mississippi river to Puget sound; and the following 
instructions are given in relation to it, and for the information and direction of the several branches 
of the service: 
“1st. The exploration and survey is placed in charge of Isaac I. Stevens, governor of the 
Territory of Washington, to whom all officers detailed for the same will report for instructions. 
“2d. The general project of the operation, subject to such modifications as circumstances may 
direct, is to operate from St. Paul, or some eligible point on the upper Mississippi, towards the 
great bend of the Missouri river, and thence on the table-land between the tributaries of the 
Missouri and those of the Saskatchawan to some eligible pass in the Rocky mountains. A depot 
will be established at Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and a portion of the party 
will rendezvous there and await the coming up of the main body. A second party will proceed 
at once to Puget sound, and explore the passes of the Cascade range, meeting the eastern 
party between that range and the Rocky mountains, as may be arranged by Governor Stevens. 
“3d. As in the prosecution of this exploration and survey it will be necessary to explore the 
passes of the Cascade range and of the Rocky mountains from the forty-ninth parallel to the head- 
waters of the Missouri river, and to determine the capacity of the adjacent country to supply, 
and of the Columbia and Missouri rivers and their tributaries to transport, materials for the con- 
struction of the road, great attention will be given to the geography and meteorology generally 
of the whole intermediate region; to the seasons and character of its freshets; the quantities 
and continuance of its rains and snows, especially in the mountain ranges; to its geology, in 
arid regions keeping particularly in view the bringing of water to the surface by means of 
artesian wells; its botany, natural history, agricultural and mineral resources; the location, 
numbers, history, traditions and customs of its Indian tribes; and such other facts as shall tend 
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