260 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
every surveyor carried his firearms by his side, andj his 
surveying instruments in his hands. 4 
The results of these surveys are most encouraging, } and 
prove conclusively that a railroad can be made, unitin Ste : 
Louis with San Francisco, along the 35th parallel of latitude, j | 
which shall form a shorter route between New York Har-’ 
bour and San Francisco than that vid Salt Lake. Nota tunnel 
is required throughout the entire distance ; and although the © 
ascents and descents are many, the grades are never of neces- | | 
sity steep. Obstruction from snow is unknown; and the | 
Sierra Nevada, instead of requiring thirteen tunnels, and | 
grades varying from 95 to 116 feet per mile, is crossed at an 
elevation of 4;008 feet without any ascent steeper than half | 
the latter grade. The two routes can easily be compared by | 
means of the table on the preceding page. 
Each line, although usually separated from its rival by 2 
belt of country ranging from two to six and a half degrees 
in width, passes across corresponding river-basins, ranges, 
and streams; the basin of the Rio Grande del Norte, which 
does not extend as far north as the Salt Lake line, being the 
only exception. 3 
Eastern Kansas, Western Kansas, the valleys of the 
Arkansas, Purgatoire, Red River, and Rio Grande del Norte 
have all been described ; the country along the 35th parallel, 
the beautiful districts about the San Francisco peaks, and the 
arid desert between the Rio Colorado and the Sierra Nevada 
have also been mentioned in detail; and the mineral wealth 
of New Mexico, Arizona, and California have not been alto- 
gether passed over. The conclusion I have arrived at 1s 
similar to that which Mr. Davis has stated in his report for 
1856, viz., that “a much larger area of cultivatable lands, and 
. a greater besueney and extent of forest growth, exist between 
ae 
