26 
ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-SECOND PARALLEL. 
Gorgonio, 1,052 miles, tlie route crosses three rivers, the Pecos, the Rio Grande, and the 
Great Colorado of the West. The peculiar features of the arid region over which the route lies 
from the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado to the summit of the San Gorgonio Pass, prove, 
when closely examined, to he most favorable to the construction of a railroad, since they obviate 
to a great degree the necessity of the most costly item of railroad construction, the prepara¬ 
tion of the road-bed for the superstructure ; this preparation, with few and limited excep¬ 
tions, throughout a distance of about 1,000 miles, having been already made by nature. This 
item amounts to from one-lialf to three-fourths of the whole cost of a railroad. Draining and 
ballasting are also dispensed with at the same time. Over the remaining portions of the route, 
the ground is generally favorable to the construction of the road-bed. The mountain passes are, 
of their kind, highly favorable, those west of the Rio Grande requiring no difficult engineering 
for location through them, and hut little rock excavation or expensive embankment and side¬ 
cutting. The Guadalupe and Hueco Passes are more difficult. 
The most unfavorable supposition for supplies of ties and lumber for the construction of 
that portion of the route between the eastern limit of the Llano Estacado and the summit of the 
San Gorgonio Pass, 1,052 miles, is that they are to come from either end of* the road, from 300 
miles east of the Llano Estacado, and from the port of San Pedro on the Pacific, 1,400 miles 
apart. 
It is supposed that the road is to he built from both ends, in sections not greater than 50 
miles each, and made to aid in building itself, transporting its own material, &c., so far as 
the proper adjustment of economy of time and means will admit; this would bring the mean 
cost of lumber over this distance of 1,052 miles to $52^ per 1,000 feet, and the mean cost of ties 
to $1,100 per mile. 
The worst case having been examined, it remains to be said that ties and lumber can be 
obtained on and near this portion of the route from the Guadalupe and Hueco mountains, 
from the headwaters of the Rio Mimbres, from the Pinal Lleno, from the Salinas river (tribu¬ 
tary of the Gila) and headwaters of the San Francisco, and from the San Bernardino mount¬ 
ains of the Coast range; which sources of supply, the length apart of the most distant being 
500 miles, may be found to materially obviate the necessity of transporting lumber from the 
two ends of the road. 
The coal of the Brazos and that from Puget sound may be used over the 1,200 miles from 
San Pedro, to within 200 miles of the Brazos, at a mean cost per ton of $16. 
The portions of the route where unusual means must be resorted to for supplies of water, 
have already been pointed out. Under the most unfavorable suppositions, the cost per mile, 
over these portions, of obtaining water by artesian wells, will not probably exceed $1,000, 
an expenditure greatly overbalanced by the saving in road-bed formation, from the regu¬ 
larity and smoothness of surface of the arid regions. 
The mode and probable cost of obtaining water at short distances in these dry regions, 
hy artesian wells, reservoirs, and deep common wells, are discussed in the accompanying 
detailed reports. The practicability of the method by artesian tvells is now being sub¬ 
jected to trials. 
If these should fail, of which, however, in the Llano Estacado, there is little probability, 
the permanent streams and large springs are sufficiently near for the purposes of a railroad ; 
and since its construction over these districts will require small working parties, the expense of 
supplying them with water and fuel, when necessary, will not largely increase the cost of con¬ 
struction. It is probable that the region between the Rio Grande and the Gila, 350 miles 
by the route explored, is more arid than corresponding regions on the more northern routes, 
but the construction of works of an unusual kind on railroads for supplies of water, are as 
essential on all these routes as upon that now under consideration. 
