Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association. 933 



Okigin of Cultivated Varieties of Plants. 

 The Gardener's Chronicle says : " "We have always thought that 

 a great deal of the difficulty of referring species, either of fruit trees 

 or any other cultivated plant, to their wild original, was owing to 

 the length of time during which they have been cultivated, which 

 has given opportunity for new conditions to produce an alteration in 

 their characters, or perliaps to confirm some accidental variety which 

 has iirst led man to appropriate to his use some exceptionally fine 

 or useful plant. 



Proposed Railway to Puget Sound. 

 A party of engineers sent out by the Union Pacific Company 

 under the charge of Col. J. O. Hudnutt of Chicago, to make a 

 preliminary survey of a route for a branch railway from Monument 

 Point, at the north end of Salt Lake, to Portland, Oregon, and 

 finally to Puget Sound, commenced their labors on the 22d day of 

 October last and finished on the 18th of May, on which day they 

 reached, the Columbia river, and soon after returned. The party 

 went for enougli to demonstrate the feasibility of the entire route. 

 The line rwn by them first crossed over the Paft Piver mountains — 

 a comparatively low range about 1,000 feet above Salt lake — then 

 passed along Paft river to Snake river, which was followed on the 

 north side for 150 miles to Burnt river, then up burnt river for a 

 short distance to Powder River valley, from thence across G-rand 

 Round valley to the foot of the Blue mountains. This range was 

 crossed by following Grand Round river and Pellican creek upward 

 to the summit, and downward along Meacham creek and 

 Umatilla river, which empties into the Columbia. The most 

 difficult part of the route surveyed, in a distance of 588 miles, 

 was found on the Blue mountains ; but the survey fully proved 

 that the average grade for ten miles on each side of the summit 

 would not be more than from eighty to ninety feet per mile. From 

 Umatilla landing, on the Columbia river, to Portland, near the mouth 

 of the Willamette river, alittle more than 200 miles, the whole descent 

 is only about 290 feet. The route from Portland to a point on Puget 

 sound, a distance of about 100 miles in a direct line, has not yet 

 been surveyed, but from official reports already uiade to the 

 government this construction of a railway is regarded as quite 

 feasible. 



