256 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
the railroad, viz., in the Black Hills, 550 miles from oma 
near Bridger’s Pass, 130 miles farther west ; on Bitter Creek, 
and some other branches of Green River; and lastly, some | 
fine deposits are now being mined in Echo Cafion. None has | 
been found between Great Salt Lake and the Pacific coast. — 
It has long been the opinion, however, of many railroad # 
men in the States, that this great national highway should ” 
not have been constructed along the 41st parallel at all; and 
they have anxiously awaited the results of last winter's § 
experience to prove or disprove the truth of their fore- | 
bodings. The Senate Committee, in their Report just issued ™ 
on the Pacific railways, say that “It is an undetermined 
problem if the Union Pacific Railroad between Omaha and § 
Sacramento can be operated (7c. ‘ worked’) throughout the { 
year. Of the elements to solve this question there are? © 
First, the known effects of drifting snow upon the railway \ 
lines of Central Illinois, and the hilly districts of New ; 
England and Pennsylvania; second, the known depths to | 
which snow falls and packs in portions of the Rocky Mountain | 
region ; third, the extraordinary height of the grades, and 
sharpness of the curves, in the passage of the Sierra Nevada. 
Railroad communication in Massachusetts, New York, and 
Pennsylvania, is often suspended in winter. These vicissi- | 
tudes take place in States where labour is abundant, where 
the stations on the lines are very near together, where fuel 
and food, draught animals and tools, are plentiful and 
accessible. But the line between Omaha and Sacramento 1s 
at present almost a continuous wilderness—portions of it 
never will be settled; population is scarce ; help in trouble, 
beyond that of the passengers and ae yés on the train, 
cannot be had ; the stock of accessible fuel may be limited to 
- a supply on the cars. If such interruptions should take 
