66 ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-FIRST AND FORTY SECOND PARALLELS. 



Ten miles of canon on the Timpanogos river, at $150,000 per mile $1,500,000 



From the Oquirrh mountains, Great Salt lake, to the head of the first canon on 

 the Sacramento river, deducting ten miles of the length of the pass in the 

 eastern ridge of the Sierra Nevada, and seventeen miles of the length of the 

 pass in the western ridge of the Sierra Nevada, 547 miles, at $45,000 per 

 mile $24,615,000 



Portion of the pass of the western ridge of the Sierra Nevada, seventeen miles, 

 $100,000 per mile $2,700,000 



From the head of the first canon on the Sacramento river to the termination of 

 the mountain passage of the river, seventeen miles above Fort Reading, 135.5 

 miles, at $150,000 per mile $20,325,000 



Thence to Fort Reading, on the Sacramento river, seventeen miles, and thence to 

 Benicia, 180 miles ; being about 200 miles, at $50,000 per mile $10,000,000 



Total , $116,095,000 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



The characteristic features of this route consist in the table-land character of the two great 

 mountain systems of the continent, the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in the 

 latitude where crossed by it, in the distance from the eastern foot of the Rocky mountains to 

 the Great Basin (350 miles,) being the least, and in the width of the Great Basin, whose 

 topographical features (those technically called movements of ground) are so highly favorable 

 to the construction of a railroad, being here the greatest, 500 miles. 



These elevated table-lands of the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada bear some general 

 resemblance, in their topographical features, independent of vegetation, to one of the ele 

 mentary or small basins of the Great Basin ; they are bounded on the east and west by ridges, 

 whose crests are at no great height above the general plateau, but several thousand feet above 

 the plains from which the mountain systems rise. In the Rocky mountain plateau, this 

 difference of elevation is upwards of 4,000 feet ; in the Sierra Nevada upwards of 3,000 feet 

 on the east, the mountain slopes on the west descending to nearly the level of the sea. The 

 Sierra Nevada assumes this table-land character again in latitude 35. 



The South Pass cannot be considered favorable, since it requires expensive construction 

 for nearly 300 miles. The route by the Cheyenne Pass may be found more favorable, but 

 there is not sufficient known of it to determine this. 



The unfavorable feature of the passes in the Wahsatch mountains consists in their caiions, 

 where the expense of construction will be great. 



The two caiions of the Sacramento, fourteen and nine miles in length, and the very 

 sinuous course of the river for the space of ninety-six miles., through heavily timbered mount 

 ains, rising precipitously from the stream, form the principal characteristic unfavorable 

 features of the route, the cost of constructing a railroad along which cannot be properly 

 estimated until minute surveys are made. 



It partakes of the character of the route near the 47th parallel, in the long and severe 

 winters on the plains east of the Rocky mountains and westward to the Great Basin. 



The profiles compiled in the office show the route, near the 41st parallel, by the South fork 

 of the Platte, the Cheyenne and Bridger s Pass. The estimate is made for the route by the 

 South Pass. 



SUPPLEMENT TO ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-FIRST AND FORTY-SECOND PARALLELS; PREPARED BY LIEU 

 TENANT G. K. WARREN, TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. 



The great South Pass, one of the key-points of this route, has in its character nothing of 

 a mountain gap, being merely a depression in the line of intersection of two gently inclined 



