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



bencatli its surface. As we go west it loses this character, and about the 99th and 100th 

 meridians becomes, for the most part, dry and almost barren. The islands of the Platte are 

 well wooded as far west as the 99th meridian. From the 100th meridian to the base of the 

 Black Hills, it is in summer hot and arid, and the summer winds, in many places, as they come 

 from the hills, seem to have just left a furnace. Wood and grass in this portion (250 miles) 

 are very scarce. 



The favorite feature of the great section east of the mountains is the almost direct flow of the 

 Platte and its branches from west to east, enabling us to obtain a location along the foot of the 

 bluffs, which will give for the most a continuously ascending grade, and avoid the rolling coun 

 try. Wood, water, and grass will also be found here more abundant than on the divides 

 between the streams. This location, however, will no doubt involve much cutting and em 

 bankment, with frequent culverts. 



There are tww routes proposed for crossing the great plateau west of the Black Hills : one 

 by the South Pass, in latitude 42 20 , longitude 113; and the other by Bridger s Pass, in 

 latitude 41 13 , longitude 110 48 . If we begin at Council Bluffs, a route through either 

 pass would have a common location in the valley of the Platte, to the junction of the North 

 and South forks. Here they would separate; the one by the South Pass taking the North fork 

 and Sweet Water, and the one by Bridger s Pass taking the South fork and Lodge Pole creek. 

 The elevation at Council Bluffs is 1,300 feet; at the junction of the forks of the Platte, 2,900 

 feet ; distance, 300 miles ; average grade, 2 feet per mile. 



As regards a connexion with Great Salt Lake City, the latter would be the more direct ; but 

 it is still a question as to which would be the better route for a railroad, though Captain Stans- 

 bury, who was over both, is positive in his preference for Bridger s Pass. Unfortunately he 

 had no barometer or means of measuring elevations, and much is left to be inferred. The fol 

 lowing facts concerning the two routes are extracted from Fremont s and Stansbury s reports : 



By the South Pass. The Platte river, 30 miles above Fort Laramie, and 220 miles above 

 the junction of the forks, comes through a gorge with vertical walls, 200 to 400 feet high, 

 formed by spurs from the Black Hills, and changes its character from a mountain stream to 

 a river of the plains. Thence to the Ked Buttes, 117 miles, there are numerous streams 

 coming into the Platte from the Black Hills, which have made deep cuts in the earth near 

 their mouths. The railroad would probably, through this portion, keep near the present 

 wagon-road some miles to the south of the Platte, where the greatest obstruction Fremont 

 found to his wagons was the strong growth of artemisia. A road along this section would be 

 expensive, though the grades would probably not be difficult. At the gorge of the Red Buttes 

 &quot;the river is not much pent up, there being a bank of considerable though variable breadth 

 on either side.&quot; A road could be located through this. Thence to the Hot Spring Gate, 34 

 miles, is an open valley. Above this point, the Platte is &quot;exceedingly rugged and walled in 

 by canons.&quot; The road just below the Hot Spring Gate should turn off to the north, up the 

 sandy bed of a dry creek to the summit of the Hills, the peaks of which are only 800 feet 

 above the Platte; grade, 133 feet per mile for 6 miles. Then a gradual slope, 56 feet per 

 mile, for 10 miles, conducts to the Sweet Water, at an elevation of about 5,640 feet; distance 

 from Red Buttes, 50 miles. The Sweet Water occasionally cuts through spurs, making canons, 

 (that of the Devil s Gate being through granite;) but generally it is represented as rather 

 open, and the immediate bottoms abound in soft grasses. The hills on either side are &quot;rocky 

 and bare.&quot; At one of the head-branches of the Sweet Water we reach the South Pass, (eleva 

 tion 7, 490 feet,) 124 miles from where we first struck the Sweet Water; average grade for 

 the first 12 miles east of the summit, 22.5 feet, and the remaining 112 miles 14.7 feet per 

 mile. The grades between these points would probably be somewhat undulating, but the 

 present surveys do not afford the means of judging their extent. From the Red Buttes to 

 the ^South Pass would be an expensive road, but it does not involve any difficult problem of 

 engineering. Little need be apprehended from snows. The necessary fuel for working-parties 



