RAILROAD REPORT ROUTE EAST OF CASCADE RANGE. 



Water-courses Continued. 



41 



PROPOSED RAILROAD ROUTE FROM FORT READING TO VANCOUVER, EAST OF THE CASCADE RANGE 



SURVEYED BY LIEUTENANT WILLIAMSON. 



In preparing the following description of this route, I have heen careful to express Lieutenant 

 Williamson s ideas, as far as they are known to me. As, however, he seldom referred directly 

 to the railroad, in his journal, I have sometimes been unable to ascertain definitely what his 

 opinion was. In such cases, I have given my own. 



With the exception of the Willamette valley and a small portion of the Sacramento valley, 

 the regions traversed by this route are unsettled, and, as a general thing, barren in their character. 

 The rocks are chiefly of volcanic origin. The few fertile spots are usually difficult of access, 

 and the country is unfitted to support a civilized population. 



Of the climate of the region east of the Cascade Kange, traversed by this route, we have no 

 definite knowledge, founded upon long continued observations ; but it is well known that little 

 or no rain falls during several months of the year, and that the whole region is often covered 

 with snow in the winter. Colonel J. C. Fremont, in traversing it during the winter of 1843-44, 

 found the snow occasionally three feet in depth, and the climate severe. In the latter part of 

 August, water froze at night in our camps near the head of Des Chutes valley, at an elevation 

 of only about 4,200 feet above the sea. In my opinion, there would be danger of occasional 

 obstruction from snow, during a few months in the year, should a railroad ever be constructed 

 on this plateau. 



The supply of water, fuel, and building materials is almost unlimited, upon the whole route. 

 The only place where there is any deficiency of timber in the immediate vicinity of the trail, is 

 near Lost river and Rhett lake, and there it can be easily obtained from the neighboring hills. 

 There is no lack of water, or good building stone, at any point upon the line. It only remains 

 to describe the difficulties of actual construction. The grades will not, as a general thing, be 

 mentioned in this report, as those upon the travelled route are given on profile No. 1, sheet No &amp;gt; 

 1, and those upon the proposed railroad line, on profile No. 2, of the same sheet, and also in 

 6X 



