RAILROAD REPORT AND ESTIMATE. 
CHAPTER XVII. 
Sr. PAUL To Bots DE Srovx.— Bois DE Sioux To Fort UNION.—FoRT UNION TO CROSSING OF MILK RIVER.—CROSSING 
or MILK RIVER то FORT BENTON.—FoRT BENTON TO ENTRANCE TO TUNNEL, CADOTTE’S Pass.—HELL-GATE 
CROSSING, VIA CLARK'S FORK, TO THE SPOKANE.—HELL-GATE CROSSING TO CROSSING OF BITTER RooT.—CROSSING 
or BITTER ROOT TO ENTRANCE TO TUNNEL THROUGH THE CŒUR D'ALÉNE MOUNTAINS.—TUNNEL AT STEVENS's PASS 
OF THE CŒUR D'ALÉNE MOUNTAINS.—TUNNEL TO THE CŒUR D'ALÉNE Mission.—C@ur D'ALÉNE MISSION TO 
CROSSING OF COLUMBIA.—CROSSING OF THE COLUMBIA TO SEATTLE, ON PUGET SoUND.—To VANCOUVER, ON THE 
COLUMBIA, AND THENCE TO PUGET SOUND.—ESTIMATE OF COST. 
ST. PAUL TO BOIS DE SIOUX. 
The Mississippi, at St. Paul, flows some hundred and fifty feet below the higher prairies east 
of the town. The ascent to this plateau is made with a forty foot grade; then, with little varia- 
tion of surface or soil, the line follows the general direction of the river, passing over prairies 
or oak openings to Sauk Rapids, and thence to Little Falls, 112 miles. Тһе same characteristics 
obtain to Crow Wing. 
In this interval the soil generally consists of a vegetable mould, of from one to four feet in 
depth, resting on a gravelly or sandy substratum, affording the best material for a fine and dry 
road embankment. On the right, and further towards the interior, is the heavily wooded and 
timber country of Minnesota. No rock cutting was observed, though rock was found in places 
near St. Anthony's Falls, and in the vicinity of Sauk Rapids. The grades are light, seldom 
exceeding two feet per mile. The bridge crossings are, at Rice creek, 60 feet; Coon creek, 
60 feet; Rum river, 150 feet; Elk river, 120 feet. The culvert masonry is small, and the earth- 
work will not exceed an average embankment of six feet. For structures both of wood and 
stone the material is good and near at hand. The crossing at Little Falls requires but 325 
feet of bridge, in two stretches, the river being divided by an island. The river is crossed at 
right angles. The abutment rests on a rock, and being at the falls, the bridge presents no 
obstruction to navigation. 
Here the crossing affords a good connexion with a line from Lake Superior, and on the west 
side enters a better wooded country than that further south, and one probably adapted for a 
firmer and drier road-bed. | 
Crow Wing has also great advantages for a connexion with Lake Superior, in the facility 
with which a bridge can be thrown across the river at that point, and the easy and very fertile 
character of the country, both eastward to Lake Superior and westward to the Bois de Sioux, 
in its inexhaustible timber, and in the saving of distance on the crossings to the south. 
The crossings at St. Anthony’s Falls and the Sauk Rapids are respectively of 800 and 600 
feet, both feasible, and giving fair facilities. 
. In the next hundred and twenty-eight miles to the Bois de Sioux prairie the line passes 
successively through wooded and prairie country, the rise in this interval being about three 
hundred feet, the ground rolling, sometimes showing stony and gravelly knolls, and frequently 
interrupted by small lakes. The earth-work in this portion will not exceed an average 
