18 
ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-EIGHTH AND THIRTY-NINTH PARALLELS. 
With building-stone it is about as well supplied as the other routes. Of water there is a 
sufficient supply, except between Grand and Green rivers, a distance of 10 miles, where, at 
certain seasons of the year, little or none is found. 
The soil west of the meridian of 99° is, under the present meteorological conditions, unculti- 
vable, except in limited portions of river-bottoms and small mountain valleys ; these latter, 
from their great elevation, being better adapted to grazing than agricultural pnrposes. This 
description is completely in accordance with the geological formation and meteorological con¬ 
dition ; the former, from the meridian of 99° west, being apparently tertiary, excepting in the 
high mountain passes. ^ 
This route may he considered to possess, in common with that of the 41st parallel, the large 
body of fertile soil in Utah Territory occupied by the Mormons, the area of which is about 1,108 
square miles. 
The coal field of Missouri lies at the eastern extremity of this route; the indications of coal in 
the Grand and Green River basins make it highly probable that seams sufficiently thick for 
profitable mining exist there. 
In regard to grade and construction, it is unnecessary to enter into any discussion of that 
portion of the route from Westport to the Sangre de Cristo Pass. It presents no peculiar diffi¬ 
culties or advantages, hut is similar to the routes of the 47th and 41st parallels. 
It would appear that the Sangre de Cristo and Coo-che-to-pa Passes are practicable in grade; 
hut the construction of the road through the Coo-che-to-pa Pass, and the western approach 
to it, would he costly under favorable circumstances of population, &c., not only on account of 
the tunnel, hut of the numerous ravines that are crossed west of the pass, and the canon that 
follows. 
The following brief enumeration of the character and extent of the difficulties to he encountered 
between the Coo-che-to-pa Pass and the Great Basin, make it evident that the route must he 
considered impracticable. 
From the head of the canon on Grand river, not far below the mouth of Coo-che-to-pa creek, 
to the Uncompahgra river, a distance of 70 miles, the ground is cut up with deep, wide, pre¬ 
cipitous ravines, the largest several hundred feet deep. These ravines cannot he turned near 
the mountains without encountering similar difficulties, and at a cost greater than that of a 
route along the river. Thus the route is forced upon Grand river, and along its canon, 60 
miles in length, broken and interrupted by the deep ravines already mentioned and numerous 
smaller gullies. The roadway throughout the greater part of this distance must be blasted out 
ot solid rock, and these wide ravines, from 100 to 200 feet deep, where they cut through the 
canon, crossed by viaducts or filling. 
Then follow 50 miles to the mouth of Blue river, the construction still of a difficult and costly 
character, from the canons of the river and broken nature of the ground. From Blue to Green 
river is 100 miles, over which the road will require numerous bridges and culverts, and a costly 
road-bed foundation of broken stone or piling over a clayey soil, which in wet weather is almost 
impassable. 
From Green river to the Wahsatch Pass, about 80 miles, the construction would still be 
of a costly character, the country being of the same ravine and chasm-like nature as that 
between the mouth of Coo-che-to-pa creek and Uncompahgra river, though on a smaller scale. 
Next follows the Wahsatch Pass, the work in which is difficult and expensive. The greatest 
grade is 131 feet per mile; a tunnel not quite three-quarters of a mile long is requisite; and 
finally, a canon 16 miles long on Salt creek, the walls of which are frequently broken by 
lateral streams, gives the only route along which the road can he brought, by cutting in solid 
rock at very great expense. 
The difficulties of engineering and the cost of construction of this portion of the route from 
the Coo-che-to-pa Pass to Sevier river, in the Great Basin, a distance of about 500 miles, 
would be so great that it may be pronounced impracticable; and it is evident, from the report 
