NARRATIVE OF 1855. 215 
the summit. This divide can be arranged for wagon roads with gentle declivities on either side. 
Little or no timber would have to be cut away. We found grass on both sides of the mountain, 
as well as near its summit. Going down the eastern base on our right, and some little distance 
below the trail, was a fine stream of water, a tributary of the Dearborn, and about a mile and 
a quarter from the summit we came to another tributary connecting with this coming from the 
north. It is on this tributary that a railroad line must be laid in order to tunnel the mountain 
in the shortest and most practible line. From the top of the mountain, it may be remarked, 
we had a delightful view of the country before us about an hour before sundown. The air 
was perfectly transparent, and we could see, running nearly to the north, the mountain spurs 
of the main chain of the Rocky mountains, with many tributary valleys and streams connecting 
with the Beaver creek and the Dearborn, whilst the country between us and the Dearborn, and 
beyond it as far as the eye could reach, was somewhat broken, yet it was uniformly well 
grassed; and, as we travelled over the route to the night's camp, we found large portions of 
the country arable, although it would be impossible to predict to what extent farming would be 
restricted by the early and late frosts. I found that to lay a railroad line along the spurs of 
the approach to Lewis and Clark's Pass it would be necessary to curve in and out, in order to 
cross the various mountain valleys with embankments not excessive, and that even then it would 
be essential to deal boldly with the projecting spurs; but the most serious difficulties in this way 
would occur the first two miles from the entrance of the tunnel, and all the embankment 
involved in establishing the road would be furnished from the excavation of the tunnel, and 
therefore ceased to be an item of expense or even of difficulty. After crossing several low 
divides and intermediate streams and valleys, I reached camp, greatly exhausted by the night's 
work, an hour and a half after sundown, where I had been preceded by my train some four 
hours, and where everything abounded that was required to furnish the conditions of a good camp. 
Monday, July 23.—Leaving our morning's camp, in three-quarters of a mile we ascended the 
valley to a ridge some seventy feet above it, and in three-quarters of a mile more came to a 
ravine ninety feet below the route on either side. Here there is no difficulty in laying either 
a wagon road or a railroad so as to essentially avoid this ravine. In one mile and a quarter we 
came to a ridge whence the ground descends to Dearborn river. Thus far on our morning’s 
journey the ground has gently undulated. The second ridge referred to is slightly higher than 
the first; and two successive ridges occur, rising perhaps twice as much as these particularly 
described. То the left of us the ground in about six hundred feet rises about one hundred 
feet—that is, on a grade of from one to six; and on the right it falls about the same distance 
in some eight hundred feet. These particularities of the ground are given to show the little 
difficulty there will be in laying the grade along this portion of the route without very heavy 
excavations and embankments, but in the railroad report the matter will be gone into in great 
detail. The next one mile and seven-eights the ground is also gently undulating; there are no 
special features that require mention except that at the end of a mile and a half there was a 
ravine some forty feet deep, which in three-eights of a mile gave out and was replaced by a low 
ridge. On the left the ground still gently undulated; and to avoid the little peculiarities of the 
ground, and the ravines and ridges which have been mentioned, the road will be laid about one- 
third of a mile to our left. In half a mile further the trail passes down a ravine and up a rise, 
when we have a view of the valley of the Dearborn river, and in a quarter of a mile it descends 
into the valley of the Dearborn, which, although somewhat narrow, has fine grass and excellent 
soil Here the valley of the Dearborn opens into a beautiful ronde, affording a most delightful 
