94 Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific Railroad. 



s traction, and the liabilities of the road to great injury and 

 destruction through a large part of this region from the high 

 freshets on the Bitter Eoot, Flathead, Clark's fork, and Columbia 

 rivers ; in the severe and long winters on the prairies east of the 

 Eocky mountains, and on the greater portion of the route sus- 

 pending labor in the open air for so large a part of the year, 

 and impeding the working of the road when built ; in the dis- 

 tance of its western terminus from that port, (San Francisco,) 

 which will give the only large travel, and business which may be 

 counted upon with certainty ; and finally, its close proximity 

 throughout to the frontier of a powerful foreign sovereignty. 



2. Route near the forty-first and forty-second parallels.' — Its ad- 

 vantages are — comparatively cheap construction, due to the favor- 

 able features of the Kocky mountain system in this latitude, and 

 those of the Great Basin, both of which result in a low sum of 

 ascents and descents, which would be a favorable element, should 

 the full working power of the road be developed ; in the moun- 

 tains being passed without tunnels ; the probability of its possess- 

 ing extensive coal-fields in the middle of the route ; and in the 

 aid which its construction would receive from the population of 

 Utah. 



Its disadvantages are — the very difficult and costly construction 

 along the Sacramento river for 136 miles; the construction 

 through the canon of the Timpanogos ; the costly construction 

 through the Black Hills to the South Pass, for nearly 300 miles, 

 (the route by the Cheyenne Pass apparently giving an equally 

 costly road;) in the great elevation of the summits in the 

 Eocky mountain system ; and in the great elevation of its plain, 

 and the long and severe winters on it, and the prairies east of the 

 Eocky mountains, suspending labor for several months of the 

 year, and impeding the working of the road when completed, by 

 their severity, and the snows on the prairies, and in the mountain 

 ravines and gorges. 



3. Route near the thirty -eighth and thirty-ninth parallels. — No 

 peculiar advantage was developed in the exploration of this 

 route, except the probability of the existence of extensive coal- 

 fields in the valley of the Grand and Green rivers. 



The extraordinary difficulties to be overcome from the Coo- 

 che-to-pa Pass to the Great Basin (500 miles) render the route 

 impracticable. The elevations of the passes in the Eocky moun- 

 tains are the greatest found, being 9,200 and 10,000 feet, the 

 latter, the Coo-che-to-pa Pass, requiring a tunnel at an elevation 

 of 9,500 feet. 



4. Route near the thirty-fifth parallel. — The advantages in this 

 route consist in water and fuel being generally less scanty than 

 on the others, excepting that of the 47th and 49th parallels ; in 

 a better supply of timber west of the Eio Grande ; in the greater 

 mildness of the winter than on the routes north of it ; in the 



