GOVERNMENT GRANT. 245 
ink it more than probable that although 1869 might not 
a ve seen the locomotive plying between New York and the 
i, ific, we should never have had an iron road laid across 
te Black Hills. Chicago would have built the branch line, 
‘ d the main trunk would have been laid farther south, below 
‘he barrier of winter snows ; it would have passed round the 
ocky Mountains, not over them; across productive valleys, 
nstead of through worthless deserts; and along the rich 
entral trough of California, instead of climbing an alpine 
lass more than 7,000 feet above the Pacific. 
_ The chief clauses of the Government grant are these :— 
; Congress confers upon the three companies mentioned the 
ight of way through all its territories, an absolute grant of 
2,800 acres per mile of the public lands through which the 
ads run; 7.c., alternate sections of one by twenty miles on 
ack side of the line; the right to use the coal, iron, timber, 
c .. thereon ; and authorises a special issue of United States’ 
ionds, bearing 6 per cent. interest, proportionate in amount 
0 the length and difficulty of the lines, to be delivered to 
he companies as the works progress; and, as short sections 
f the road (usually twenty-mile sections) are passed by the 
ernment inspectors as being satisfactorily completed. 
1e distance from Omaha to Sacramento is 1,721 miles ; 
the grants of bonds are as follows :— 
etween the Missouri and the eastern base of the Rocky 
ains (525 miles), 16,000 dollars per mile ; Rocky 
mtain section (150 miles), 48,000 dollars per mile ; Salt 
section (900 miles), 32,000 dollars per mile ; Sierra 
ada section (150 miles), 48,000 dollars per mile. Total 
in bonds, about 50,000,000 dollars. The Kansas branch 
ved a subsidy of 16,000 dollars per mile for 381 miles ; 
other short branches were similarly subsidised. 
