THE COUNTRY ALONG LAT. 38°. 261 
4 Personally, I have no interest whatever in railway enter- 
P prises in America; yet, for fear of being considered unjustly 
partial, I almost think I have under-coloured rather than 
otherwise the natural resources of this tract of country ; and 
as my friend General Palmer is quite incapable of any 
attempt at exaggeration in these particulars, I will give the 
deductions he has arrived at in his own words :-— 
“To sum up this subject, it may be said :— 
_ “Ist. That while the western half of the continent is not 
- an agricultural Paradise, yet, certainly on this route, it is far 
from being a desert, as many have supposed. That it has 
_ been shown to be almost continuously inhabitable, and that 
there are frequent and extensive districts of great attrac- 
tion to the farmer; while to the grazier, except in the 
Great Basin, it presents one vast, uninterrupted belt of 
uniformly superior pasturage, extending from Kansas to the 
_ Pacific Ocean, on which horses, mules, cattle, and sheep can 
f be raised in countless herds, as cheaply, perhaps, as anywhere 
» in the world. 
“2nd. That the mildness of the climate on this parallel 
| a greatly enhances the value both of its arable and pastoral 
; Ee resources, enabling more than one crop to be raised in a 
| season, permitting stock, without care, to fare as well in 
| winter as summer, and adding the vine, cotton, and other 
| E semi-tropical fruits or products to’ those of our temperate 
. latitudes. On the survey, we drove our beef cattle along in 
_ the winter season, and always found for them and for the 
: -Taules of our trains abundant nutritious grazing, on the highest 
summits of the line equally with the deepest valleys. 
