10 ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-SEVENTH AND FORTY-NINTH PARALLELS. 



amount, and expensive; there will be frequent rock-excavation, and the bulk of the rock- 

 excavation in the entire route will be in this section. It is evident that the difficulties of con 

 struction will be great, and the cost excessive. 



Upon the passes of the Rocky mountains, Governor Stevens says : &quot;It is not doubted there 

 are Qther passes in this portion of the Rocky mountain range, even better than those explored ; 

 they are indicated by the general depression of the mountain range, with the greater fre 

 quency of the streams stretching out to meet each other from the opposite slopes of the mount 

 ains ; and I consider it important that, in future operations, a whole season should be devoted 

 to their thorough examination, and that instrumental surveys should be made of the pass 

 found to be the most practicable.&quot; 



Leaving the Spokane, the route enters the Great Plain of the Columbia, a table-land stretch 

 ing from the Cceur d Alene to the Cascade mountains, a distance of 200 miles. Its central 

 and western portions are of trap formation, and are described on the map as sandy, rocky, 

 and sterile. Its summit, 800 feet above the Spokane river, is readily attained, the treeless 

 plain is crossed in a distance of 110 miles, and a suitable point for crossing the Columbia 

 river, 400 or 450 yards wide, reached, 140 miles distant from the Spokane. This point is about 

 equally distant from the navigable waters of the Pacific in Puget sound and in the Columbia 

 river. The whole intermediate space is occupied by the Cascade mountains, with their 

 secondary chains, spurs, and high, broken table-lands, through which there are but two 

 passes reported practicable for a railroad that of the Columbia river and that of the Yakima, 

 sometimes erroneously called the Snoqualme. 



The Yakima Pass gives the most direct route to Puget sound, the distance by it being 150 

 or 160 miles shorter than by the Columbia River Pass. It requires a tunnel through rock, 

 (siliceous conglomerate,) either 4,000 yards long, 3,000 feet above the sea, or a tunnel 11,840 

 yards long, 2,400 feet above the sea. The reconnaissance did not extend westAvard from the 

 summit more than three miles. The evidence respecting the amount of snow found on the 

 summit of the pass at the close of Avinter, makes it probable that it is then 20 feet deep there. 

 This question should be satisfactorily settled, and the reconnaissance completed, before the 

 practicability of the pass can be considered established. In the opinion of the officer making 

 the reconnaissance Captain McClellan, Corps of Engineers the pass is barely practicable, 

 and only at a great cost of time, labor, and money. Under every favorable condition of position 

 the construction of either of the proposed tunnels Avovild be seriously objectionable ; but Avhere 

 the position itself is so unfavorable, the final advantages should be very great to determine 

 the selection of this route. The information now possessed is sufficient to decide against this 

 route. 



The route by the pass of the Columbia follows that river from the Great Plain, being gen 

 erally located, as far as the Dalles, in bottom-lands which present no difficulties. From the 

 Dalles to near Vancouver, 90 miles, the rocky bluffs close upon the river, and the work required 

 will be similar to that of the Hudson River railroad along the mountain region. In the opinion 

 of Mr. Lander, &quot;the high floods to which the Columbia river is subject, are serious obstacles 

 to obtaining the best location for cheap construction offered by its valley.&quot; In 1854, the rise of 

 the river during the flood was 10 feet above spring level, and 1*7 feet above summer level. 



The Columbia river is navigable for sea-going vessels to Vancouver, the point now reached ; 

 but the unfavorable character of the entrance to that river, and the great superiority of the 

 ports on Puget sound, seemed to render it expedient to adopt some one of the latter as the 

 Pacific terminus of this route. Continuing down the Columbia, therefore, through bottom 

 lands, to the mouth of the Cowlitz, the route enters the Avide and comparatively flat and wooded 

 valley of that river, ascends it, and, crossing over the Avooded and prairie plains, which, 

 &quot;though not fully explored, are sufficiently well known to insure the unusually favorable 

 character of the country for the construction of a railway,&quot; reaches Seattle, the best port on the 

 east side of Puget sound. 



