136 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 241 



is fertile. It produces fine crops with little, and in many places 

 without any, irrigation, not on account of a greater rainfall, but 

 from the different character of the soil. The grandest scenery in 

 the mountains is found on the Denver & Rio Grande Western 

 Railroad. This road starts from Ogden, the junction of the Union 

 Central Pacific Railroad, traversing the valley of Salt Lake and 

 its River Jordan, crossing the many ranges of the Rockies by 

 passes over two miles above the sea-level, through deep cafions 

 so steep and narrow that in the Royal George Cafion the road 

 is carried along the river on a bridge, no way being found for the 

 road on the mountain side. At the eastern terminus the Denver 

 and Rio Grande road connects with the Atchison and Topeka 

 at Pueblo, and with the Union Pacific at Denver. 



Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. 



Kansas City has heretofore been the starting-point of this line, 

 but it is now being rapidly extended east to Chicago, and will 

 soon run a through train from Chicago to the Pacific Ocean. 

 From the eastern boundary of Kansas it follows the line of the 

 Arkansas River 600 miles west to La Junta, 4,000 feet above the 

 level of the sea. Here it turns and runs to the south-west, 330 miles, 

 to Albuquerque, thence turns and runs due west to the Pacific 

 Ocean. It crosses two ranges of the Rocky Mountains, the first at 

 Rincon, on the boundary line between Colorado and New Mexico, 

 the highest pass on the road, 7,600 feet ; the second at the con- 

 tinental divide, 1,000 miles from Kansas City, 7,200 feet high ; thence 

 along a high plateau nowhere less than one mile in elevation, 

 700 miles, following the Little Colorado River ; thence it descends 

 rapidly 125 miles, to the Needles, where it crosses the Colorado 

 River at the boundary line between Arizona and southern Cali- 

 fornia, 477 feet above tide-water. Then the Sierra and Coast 

 ranges are crossed, at a height of about 3,000 feet, and tide-water 

 is reached at Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. Near 

 Albuquerque, 900 miles west of Kansas City, is a branch of the 

 road to Santa Fe, the old city of the plains, famous for its Mexican 

 remains. Here, too, are the hot springs of Los Vegas, having a 

 winter climate unequalled for health. The air is dry and bracing, 

 and more temperate than that of the far-famed Colorado Springs. 

 Holbrook, 1,100 miles from Kansas City, is sixty miles from the 

 renowned Pueblos of the Moquis tribe of Indians. 



The Plateau Country, so called, through which the Colorado 

 River and its branches run, is reached either from Peach Springs, 

 1,400 miles from Kansas City, by a stage-road, only i6 miles, to 

 the Grand Cafion, or from Flagg Staff, 60 miles from Point Sub- 

 lime. Here is the sublimest scenery on the continent, as yet but 

 little visited for want of easy means of access. The more it is 

 known, the greater will be the number of visitors. The Plateau 

 Country is the land of cafions, all of which lead down to one great 

 trunk-channel cleft through the heart of the Plateau Country, 800 

 miles long, and with a depth of from 2,000 to 6,000 feet. Of the 

 many canons in the plateau, the Grand Caiion is the " most mag- 

 nificent as well as the grandest geological section of which we have 

 any knowledge." It is 218 miles long, from 4,500 to 6,000 feet 

 deep, averaging 5,000 feet. Its width from crest-line to crest-line 

 is from 4i to i2|- miles, the widest portion being always the 

 grandest. Not far from the Grand Caiion, near Peach Springs, is 

 Little Zion Valley, a cafion running into the Grand Caiion. " In its 

 proportions it is almost equal to the Yosemite, but in its nobility and 

 variety of the sculptured scenery and wonderful variety of colors, 

 there is no comparison. 



Southern Pacific Railroad. 



It is hardly possible to realize how recently the territory through 

 which this road runs came into our possession. California in 1846 

 was an " outlying and neglected Mexican province." New Mexico, 

 Arizona, and southern Colorado were purchased of Mexico in 

 1853, under the Gadsden treaty, for $10,000,000, " because the low 

 level of the mountains below the Gila was the natural route for 

 a southern transcontinental railway." Soon after the purchase, 

 schemes were formed in the East for constructing a Southern Pacific 

 road. Fifteen years ago a few hundred miles of road were built 

 in Texas, and the promoters applied to Congress for a subsidy. 

 Then the managers of the Central Pacific, who controlled all 

 the business of the Pacific slope, determined to construct the 



Southern Pacific without a subsidy, and thereby retain their mo- 

 nopoly. The road was commenced in the year 1875, and was com- 

 pleted in 1 88 1. The eastern termini of this road are at New Or- 

 leans and Galveston. Like the Canadian Pacific, it crosses the 

 continent from ocean to ocean. It passes through the rich low- 

 lands of Louisiana and Texas, reaching the great plains a little 

 west of San Antonio. Near this city it meets the Rio Grande 

 River, follows its valley, ascending by a steady grade to El Paso, 

 1,200 miles from New Orleans ; thence through New Mexico and 

 Arizona on an elevated plateau about 4,000 feet high for 200 miles, 

 by the foot-hills and over the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, to the 

 continental divide at Dragoon Summit, 4,614 feet above tide-water ; 

 thence over the valley of the Gila and its branches to the Colorado 

 River, which it crosses at Yuma near the mouth of the Gila, through 

 a dry and arid desert rich in mines of silver, copper, and lead, — a 

 country long desolated by the Arapahoes ; thence down into the 

 great desert of California, 260 feet below the level of the sea, and 

 over a low range or spur of the Sierras to tide- water at Los Angeles 

 and San Diego (the country near Los Angeles is the garden of 

 California, where the orange-tree buds, blossoms, and ripens its- 

 fruit all the year round) ; then over the main range of the Sierras at 

 Tehachapi, 4,026 feet high, and down into the valley of the San 

 Joaquin and Sacramento rivers to San Francisco. The grade of the 

 road is lower and more favorable than that of either of the other 

 transcontinental roads. It is a favorite route for passenger travel 

 in the winter and spring. In the summer the heat is so intense 

 and the dust so thick as to render it uncomfortable. 



The great plains begin at San Antonio, and run about 700 miles 

 to the foot of the mountains near El Paso. They are much lower 

 than in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, but are more arid. Oc- 

 casionally on the plains west of San Antonio there has been no- 

 rainfall for one and even two years. These plains would make the 

 finest pastures for cattle when there is sufficient rain, as the snows 

 are light, the winters warm, and the pastures good the year through. 

 This road and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe are the only 

 roads without snow-sheds. 



The Union and Central roads, when built, relied almost entirely 

 upon the through business, now mainly upon local business, as the 

 through business has become of comparatively little importance be- 

 cause it is divided among five lines. The increase in the number 

 of roads and the large reduction of rates have stimulated emigra- 

 tion, and thus the business, both through and local, is steadily and 

 rapidly increasing. Each road now does as much business as the 

 Union and Central when they monopolized the whole. The con- 

 struction of competing roads has resulted in great benefit to the 

 public, and, when the local business is built up, the revenues and 

 profits of the several roads must be ve»y large. 



Other roads are also seeking new routes across the mountains. 

 The St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba has constructed several 

 hundred miles in Dakota, and is constructing its road at the rate of 

 five miles a day, through Manitoba and up the Missouri River 

 to Fort Benton. It is also reported that parties in the interest 

 of this line have commenced the construction of a line from 

 Seattle, across the Cascade Mountains, down the Yakima River, 

 to the Moxee Valley, and thence across to the great bend of the 

 Columbia. The Chicago and Northwestern has already crossed 

 the great plains in Nebraska and Wyoming, to the foot-hills of the 

 Rocky Mountains, 1,000 miles west of Chicago, and will ultimately 

 be forced to seek a route over the Rocky Mountain^, along the 

 northern fork of the Platte River. 



Comparative Statement. 



It will be interesting to compare the elevation and length of the 

 different transcontinental railroads. The greatest average elevation 

 of the mountain system of North America is in southern Wyoming^ 

 and the western part of Colorado. It therefore follows that the 

 passes over the mountains should be the highest in this section. 



The highest railroad passes are : — 



Kicking Horse Pass, on Canadian Pacific 5*596 feet, 



Bozeman Pass, Montana, on Northern Pacific 5i570 " 



Sherman Pass, Wyoming, on Union Pacific 8,235 " 



Pass on Denver & South Park Railroad, Union Pacific 11,250 " 



Marshall Pass, Colorado, on Denver and Rio Grande, about 12,000 " 



State Line, Colorado, on Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 7,622 " 



Dragoon Summits, on Southern Pacific 4,6r4 "" 



