240 EXPLORATIONS ACROSS THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



in more southern latitudes. In addition, the navigability of the Missouri high up in 

 this region will facilitate the construction of the road. These facts certainly are 

 important, and not only show that the country is worthy of the immediate attention 

 of the Government in respect to its development, by the establishment of a military 

 post and emigration route all the way to Washington Territory; but they also point 

 to the day when a railroad will be normal to the then existing state of things, and 

 follow as a natural consequence. 



The question of making a railroad across the continent is one, however, of no 

 ordinary magnitude, and it is nothing wonderful that every administration has been 

 backward in taking hold of it. When we reflect that the road will probably be 

 worked at but few points at one time — be probably pushed out from either extreme ; 

 that it will not have the dense population of the States immediately about it, whence 

 the necessary labor is to be drawn; that there will be no thousand avenues of com- 

 merce by which all the necessary materials and supplies can be conveyed; that there 

 will be but few centers of population whence aid or facilities of any kind can be had; 

 that the road must necessarily pass through a desert where but little or no suitable 

 timber can be foimd for the superstructure, it may be readilv seen wliv there is such 

 a reluctance in taking hold of so gigantic a scheme. Besides, if it is once taken up, 

 it should be prosecuted to an immediate completion; for, on the supposition that the 

 route is 2,000 miles long (and none of them would be much short of it), if 100 miles 

 of road should be made in a year, it would take 20 years to build it; and during this 

 period a portion of it, if wooden ties are used, will have rotted out twice. If 200 

 miles are made, which, considering the difficulties in the way, would be a great deal 

 of work, it would take 10 years to build it, and then a portion of it will have rotted 

 out once. These are ugly features, but it is better to look at them in advance than to 

 be startled by them when loss and ruin shall have ensued. The matter would not 

 be so bad if the road could be made profitable as it advances ; but this would prob- 

 ably hold true of but the northern one, for the reason that the region through which 

 the others would be laid can never, on account of its sterility, support a dense popu- 

 lation, and hence there could arise but little need of commercial facilities until the 

 road should have been made entirely through. 



Again, the length of the road would be such, so far as bulky articles are con- 

 cerned, as to make it ruinous to have them conveyed in this way. The merchant- 

 ships, though slower, would doubtless still monopolize all this heavy, bulky trade. 

 The road would then chiefly have to depend for its support upon passengers, the freight 

 of small packages, and the aid the Government might give it by its transmission of 

 the mails and the transportation of troops and munitions of war. But still its great 

 service in binding the extremes of our confederacy together, and its important use in 

 a military point of view, would doubtless induce the Government to contribute its 

 utmost toward keeping it in operation. 



To my mind, scarcely second to the project of a great national railroad across 

 our continent, looms up the important one of a ship-canal through Central America. 

 This, it strikes me, is the great political, commercial, financial, physico-scientific, moral, 

 and religious problem of the age ; and, if it could be accomplished, would do more to 



