264 ROUTES FROM SALT LAKE CITY TO THE PACIFIC. 



of the Salt Lake, to tlie ford of Bear River ; crossing which, it 

 would proceed in a north-west course, following the present emi- 

 gration road until it would intersect that from the Soda Springs to 

 the Humboldt, or Mary's River. The route to California would pur- 

 sue a south course at the western base of the Wahsatch range of 

 mountains, on the line now occupied by the Mormon settlements, and 

 would either strike the Pacific at San Diego, or, by doubling the 

 southern extremity of the Sierra Nevada, should that be found 

 practicable, reach San Francisco by the Tulare Lakes and the 

 valley of the San Joachin. As to the character of this latter route 

 I have no precise information ; but it has been frequently traversed 

 by various companies of Mormon explorers, who declare it to be 

 perfectly practicable ; and the Mormons themselves are seriously 

 contemplating the construction of a railroad over it, by which to 

 secure an outlet to the ocean for the products of their territory. 



Most of the projects for a railroad across the continent, as far 

 north as 40° and 41°, look to the valley of the Humboldt as a point 

 whence, by the branching of the road, the Pacific coast both of 

 Oregon and California may be reached : the former by the valley of 

 the Wallamutte, and the latter by the Salmon-trout Pass, or some 

 other, through the Sierra Nevada. The mode that has been pro- 

 posed for reaching this valley, is from the South Pass, by Sublette's 

 Cut-off, to the Soda Springs, and thence in a south-western di- 

 rection to the valley of the Humboldt. This part of the route, 

 (from the Soda Springs to the Humboldt,) I apprehend, from the 

 formation of the country over which it must necessarily pass, will 

 be extremely difficult and expensive. 



The northern rim of the Great Basin, or the elevated ground 

 which divides it from the valley of the Columbia, does not consist, 

 as has been supposed, of one continuous mountain range which may 

 be flanked, but of a number of long, abrupt, detached, parallel 

 ridges, extending in a north and south direction, and separated by 

 intervening valleys, which constitute, as it were, so many summit 

 levels, whence the waters flow north on the one side into the 

 Columbia, and south on the other into the Great Basin. Any line, 

 therefore, from the Soda Springs to the valley of the Humboldt, 

 will necessarily be obliged to encounter these ridges at nearly a 

 right angle, and will subject any trace for a road across them to 

 variations of level, which cannot but prove obstacles of a most 

 serious character. The route by the Salt Lake City, and thence 

 around the northern shore of the lake, would intersect that from 



