VIII. H G. McKINNEY. 



Pacific Railway the area of land granted in this way was 

 twenty-five millions of acres. This and other railways 

 constructed under similar conditions, have had an excellent 

 effect in promoting settlement; and the steady influx of 

 population, the general prosperity and the absence of an 

 unemployed class, all tend to indicate that the development 

 of the country has proceeded on sound lines. The purely 

 Government railways are only a small fraction of the total 

 length. 



No other country in the world has such a record as that 

 of the United States, as regards the construction of large 

 engineering works. The immense area of fertile land suit- 

 able for settlement, the great value and variety of its 

 mineral resources, and the unsurpassed system of its natural 

 inland waterways afforded the widest scope for engineering 

 enterprise. The extent to which these resources have been 

 developed is a monument of what can be done by a resource- 

 ful people to whom an enlightened Government has given 

 a free hand. The railways of the United States, which 

 have an aggregate length comparatively little short of the 

 combined lengths of all the railways throughout the rest 

 of the world, were constructed entirely by private enter- 

 prise. In many cases the lines were carried out under the 

 land grant system — an arrangement which offers many 

 advantages in a new country. When a company was 

 authorised to construct a railway under this system through 

 public lands, it was to the interest of that company that the 

 line should pass through the best land available for settle- 

 ment. The engineers, surveyors, and agents of such a 

 company had thus to keep before them, not only questions 

 bearing on the best grades, the minimum of engineering 

 difficulties, and the minimum expense of construction, but 

 also questions relating to the best quality of land for settle- 

 ment and the best sites for future towns. It would be 



