90 EXCAVATIONS AND EMBANKMENTS. 



nre scattered on the surface. Side ditching is often necessary in flat and low places, but for 

 the main part of the distance the excavation is light and gravelly. There is no rock excavation. 



Grades of thirty feet per mile will occasionally be required in the limited region of knolly, 

 rolling country, but will generally not exceed ten feet. 



Crossing the tributaries of the Minnesota at their sources, the amount of bridge work will be 

 small; an estimate of two hundred feet on the small streams of the Crow, South Branch, and 

 Chippewa rivers, covers the whole. The culverts will be small and frequent in number. 



The pine and wooded region through which the line passes is estimated to extend westward 

 from the Mississippi eighty miles. The numerous beautiful lakes are often surrounded with a 

 handsome growth of wood, mainly elm and poplar. The supplies of lumber will, however, be 

 drawn mostly from the Mississippi and the pine region to the west of it, and with small expense 

 of transportation. 



Stone is found in places only at the Mississippi. The granite boulders are found at some sixty 

 miles west of the Mississippi, and will supply the culvert masonry. Stone for the small amount 

 of bridge abutments must be brought from the Mississippi, unless further explorations discover 

 the formation of good building material. 



Thenceforward to the valley of the Missouri the total rise is about 700 feet. In this portion is 

 included the prairie of the Bois des Sioux, a remarkable flat of some forty miles width, almost an 

 absolute plain, and from whose eastern verge the eye seeks in vain, on its shadowy, monotonous 

 surface of coarse, dark grass, any relieving undulation, or tree or shrub. Through this remarkable 

 prairie the Bois des Sioux and Wild Rice rivers make their way to join the Red river of the North, 

 in narrow, canal-like channels, with miry sides and bottoms. The elm and oak are found on 

 these two streams, either threading their banks or grouped together in handsome clusters. The 

 water-level was, in the latter part of June, when crossed by our train, some eighteen feet below 

 the edges of the banks, but high deposits of drift stuff had been made on the banks, and were 

 found even at several miles distance from the river. In the breaking up of winter, and with the 

 spring rains, this prairie is undoubtedly very \vet and marshy, and, to a great extent, covered 

 with standing water, though at small depth. 



Between this prairie and the Shayenne the land becomes undulating and dry ; and, in the 

 vicinity of that river, sand-hillocks, and in some instances sand-bluffs, show themselves. The 

 iShayenne flows in a deep valley, 150 to 200 feet below the general prairie level, and with a 

 valley one-quarter to three-quarters of a mile wide. The bottom is fairly wooded with elm, oak, 

 ash, poplar, &c. At the first crossing made of this river by the train, its width was sixty feet, its 

 depth fourteen feet, with freshet marks eighteen feet above the water-level. At the second 

 crossing its width was fifty feet, its depth three and a half feet, the immediate banks miry in 

 both cases. These crossings would be expensive and cause much loss of grade, and are avoided 

 in the direction given to the route. Granite boulders of large size are frequent on the high 

 grounds bordering on the river, and atone place east of the second crossing it was supposed that 

 granite was found in place. 



From the bend of the Shayenne to Mouse river the country is nearly uniform, gradually rising, 

 is in part undulating, but has many small lakes, and is often marshy. Riviere a Jacques is 

 crossed with a width of some 120 feet. This river has probably very little wood on it within 

 reach of the route. 



There is a general destitution of wood throughout this interval, and it is only rarely that one 

 finds a growth of wood on the numerous small lakes, and the small tributaries of the James river. 

 The vegetable mould, not over-deep at Shayenne river, gradually decreases, and the soil is gen 

 erally thin at the source of the Shayenne and James rivers. Thence the soil improves until we 

 reach the Mouse river, where there is much good arable land. 



The Shayenne river, with a curve from the north, appears to retain its character, as already 

 observed, with a deep valley, high, steep banks, wooded bottom, and much the same formation 



