REVENUE AND INCOME. 
139 
specting the prospects of his new home in the West. If such 
correspondence should be of a character to induce others to emi- 
grate, as no doubt it will be, it is not difficult to imagine the 
increase of travel from year to year. Indeed, there seems but 
little doubt that the population of California will soon num- 
ber half a million of souls, and that an empire will eventually be 
founded on the shores of the Pacific, which, in wealth, resources, 
and power, will rival even New York itself. The toilsome jour- 
ney of a month, which now serves the emigrant and the return- 
ing adventurer in the youth of his Western home, will then no 
longer answer the conditions of maturer years ; and with a char- 
acteristic spirit, he will seek a transit which shall keep pace with 
the rapid flow of his thoughts. Can it be doubted what route- 
he will take ? 
We ha# thus briefly touched on the probable through revenue 
and income of the Tehuantepec railroad, the sources of which 
may be recapitulated thus : 
1. The California travel. 
2. The return of oil and bone from the Pacific whaling fleet. 
3. The transportation of breadstuff's and domestic fabrics to California and 
adjacent points. 
4. The freight on naval and military supplies. 
5. The consumption of coal by Pacific steamers. 
6. The American and foreign trade with the East Indies and China. 
It is unnecessary to go into more minute details concerning 
this single source of revenue. Indeed, it would be impossible 
to make even an estimate susceptible of expression in the sim- 
ple representative language of dollars and cents. All we can 
do is to state the premises as accurately and as briefly as pos- 
sible, and leave the world to draw their own conclusions. The 
simple questions involved in the inquiry are : Is the route fea- 
sible 8 Is it shorter ? Is it healthier ? Have you safe and 
sufficient anchorage ? These, we hope, are satisfactorily an- 
swered. 
The case does not, however, rest here. No allusion has yet 
been made to the income derivable from the way or incidental 
trade of the projected railroad, which, as we have previously 
intimated, would be much greater than might be supposed, 
