MAJOE EMORY'S STATEMENT. 



379 



evidence than that furnished by a party of persons travel- 

 ing on mule back, at the top of their speed, across the 

 continent, the opinion of the country has been held in 

 suspense upon the subject of the proper route for a rail- 

 way, and even a preference created in the public mind in 

 favour of a route which actual survey has demonstrated 

 to be the most impracticable of all the routes between the 

 49th and 32nd parallels of latitude. On the same kind 

 of unsubstantial information maps of the whole continent 

 have been produced and engraved in the highest style of 

 art, and sent forth to receive the patronage of Congress, 

 and the applause of geographical societies at home and 

 abroad, while the substantial contributors to accurate 

 geography have seen their works pilfered and distorted, 

 and themselves overlooked and forgotten." * * * 

 " The plains or basins which I have described as occur- 

 ring in the mountain system are not the great plains of 

 North America which are referred to so often in the 

 newspaper literature of the day, in the expressions, 

 'News from the Plains,' 'Indian Depredations on the 

 Plains,' &c. 



" The term 4 plains,' is applied to the extensive inclined 

 surface reaching from the base of the Eocky Mountains 

 to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the valley of the 

 Mississippi, and form a feature in the geography of the 

 western country as notable as any other. Except on the 

 borders of the streams which traverse the plains in their 

 course to the Valley of the Mississippi, scarcely anything 

 exists deserving the name of vegetation. The soil is 

 composed of disintegrated rocks, covered by a loam an 

 inch or two in thickness, which is composed of the 

 exuvias of animals and decayed vegetable matter. 



" The growth on them is principally a short but nutri- 



