ROUTES SURVEYED. 239 - 
ty, on the contrary, rather sunk between the two rows of 
¥ muscles or mountains on either side. They found depressions 
jdong the spine—such as the North, Middle, South, and 
ft. Louis parks—shut in on each side by the rows of muscles 
: hich made the animal so formidable. They showed, more- 
over, that, although he had a hump on his back (the centre of 
Colorado), from which his muscular frame sloped down on all 
Sides, yet that this was flat also, and could be surmounted, if 
hecessary, even by a railroad; that his body ended about the 
35th parallel, only leaving an insignificant tail in the way 
south of that line; and also that his broad shoulders (the 
Laramie plains), sliders exceeding 7,000 feet in height, 
were so smooth and rounded off that they almost invited 
the pathfinder to choose this place for crossing in prefer- 
ence to any other. 
_ The chief routes examined ang reported upon were the 
following : ssc 
, Ast. Between the 46th and 48th parallels, to unite Lake 
Superior and the head of navigation on the Mississippi with 
Puget Sound and the Columbia River. This has exclopes 
into the North Pacific Railroad route. 
_ 2nd. Between the 41st and 42nd parallels, to unite the 
Mi ssouri River at Council Bluffs ( Omaha) with the harbour of 
San Francisco. This has developed into the Union Pacific 
¥ ailroad. 
_brd. Between the 38th and 39th parallels, from Westport 
as City), at the great bend of the Missouri, due west 
ss the continent. This was an attempt to run an “air- 
ne” straight over the hump on the bear’s back through the 
tre of Colorado, and thence in a direct line to San Francisco. 
he muscles on the eastern side were found to present no 
surmountable ee and one of the depressions (the 
