GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 91 



An enterprise of such comprehensive utility as tliis road should not 

 suffer a moment's delay in the work necessary to its speedy completion 

 for want of capital ; for where can an investment be found which will 

 be safer or more certain of a profitable return ? 



A single calculation based upon one source of its revenues will demon- 

 strate how speedy, certain, and abundant must be the return made by 

 this enterprise after its completion. The present population of Mon- 

 tana, at a very moderate estimate, is twenty-five thousand, who are all 

 anxiously- looking forward to the time when they will be connected with 

 the States by rail. Suppose (and this calculation, at the i)rices which 

 now prevail in Montana, and which the inhabitants of that Territory can 

 afford to pay for all the necessaries of life not obtainable from the soil, 

 is much too low) that each one of this number pays an average sum of 

 $200 more per annum for groceries, dry-goods, wearing apparel, &c., 

 than at Omaha or San Francisco for li lie articles. As the merchants of 

 Montana do not make greater i)rofits on their sales than do the mer- 

 chants of those cities, this $200 per capita, aggregating 85,000,000 

 per annum, is paid for the transportation of goods, the larger portion 

 of it being now received by the Upper Missouri liiver transportation 

 companies, but which will nearly all go into the treasury of this road 

 when completed, to be shared by it with the Union Pacific and Central 

 Pacific Eailroads. With the tide of emigration flowing into this Terri- 

 tory in anticipation of the completion of this road, it is but reasonable 

 to suppose that this population will be doubled when that event occurs. 

 Of course the revenue will bei correspondingly increased from this one 

 source, but by no means the most profitable source of income to the 

 road. 



To this is to be added what the road may reasonably anticipate from 

 the great-wheat fields of Montana, from its inexhaustible timber, from 

 its silver-mines, from its stock-growers, and from the great stream of 

 transient travel for business, pleasure, and observation. A few years 

 only can elapse before the marvels of the Upper Yellowstone, its gey- 

 sers, boiling mud-springs, and sulphur mountains, the Great Falls of the 

 Missouri, the singular scenery of the Bad Lands below Fort Benton, 

 the picturesque beauties of the Prickly Pear Caiion, and the stupendous 

 architecture of the llocky Mountains will attract thousands of visitors 

 annually to that distant country to view the wonders of nature and the 

 grandeur of our mountain-scenery. This enterprise cannot without 

 sacrifice be delayed a day longer than competent force, abundant means, 

 and ami)le material require to convert the project into an established 

 fact. 



There were very many incidents connected with our journey which 

 would prove of great interest to the general reader. Many of these 

 have met the public eye through the correspondence of the gentlemen 

 who accompanied us, and others doubtless will be used to embellish the 

 various articles which may Irereafter appear in orrr magazines, descrip- 

 tive of the marvelous region which we explored. Let us hope that the 

 time is not far distant when the ge^'sers, cataracts, lakes, hot springs, 

 and magriificent mountain scenery of our national park will become as 

 familiar to the world of art as Niagara and Yosemite, both of which 

 they so greatly surpass. 



N. P, LAXGFOED, 

 Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Farlc. 



Dr. F. V. Hayden, 



United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



