254 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
the evidences of ingenious self-protection and defence which | 
our men learned during the war. The same curious huts and 
underground dwellings which were a common sight along our 
army lines then, may now be seen burrowed into the sides of 
the hills, or built up with ready adaptability in sheltered 
spots. The whole organisation of the force engaged in the 
construction of the road is, in fact, semi-military. The men 
who go ahead, locating the road, are the advance guard. 
Following these is the second line, cutting through the 4 
gorges, grading the road, and building bridges. Then comes- 
the main line of the army, placing the sleepers, laying the | 
track, spiking down the rails, perfecting the alignment, % 
ballasting the rail, and dressing up and completing the road © 
for immediate use. This army of workers has its base, to 1 
continue the figure, at Omaha, Chicago, and still farther | 
eastward, from whose markets are collected the material for — 
constructing the road. Along the line of the completed road 
are construction trains constantly ‘pushing forward to the — 
front’ with supplies. The company’s grounds and workshops 
at Omaha are the arsenal, where these purchases, amounting 
now to millions of dollars in value, are collected and held 
ready to be sent forward. The advanced limit of the rail is 
occupied by a train of long box cars, with hammocks swung | 
under them, beds spread on top of them, bunks built within 
them, in which the sturdy, broad-shouldered pioneers of the 
great iron highway sleep at night and take theis meals. 
Close behind this train come loads of ties and rails and 
spikes, &c., which are being thundered off upon the roadside, 
to be ready for the track-layers. The road is graded a hundred 
miles in advance. The ties are laid roughly in place, then 
_ adjusted, gauged, and levelled. Then the track is laid. 
_ “Track-laying on the Union Pacific is a science, and we 
