54 
ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-SEVENTH AND FORTY-NINTH PARALLELS. 
The distance from St. Paul to Vancouver is 1,864 miles. 
“ u Seattle 2,025 miles. 
The equated distances become (to Vancouver) 2,207 miles. 
“ “ (to Seattle) 2,387 miles. 
The numbers just given are not necessarily a measure of the sum of all the ascents on the 
route, since in making any one of the great ascents the road may and does rise and fall repeat¬ 
edly. These minor undulations careful instrumental surveys only can measure accurately. 
If the prairies give a low profile, they at the same time have the disadvantage of furnishing 
neither lumber nor fuel, nor a good supply of water, and, at some seasons, none at all over 
certain distances. The cotton-wood on the river bottoms (of which but a limited supply exists) 
should not be depended upon for fuel—it is no doubt of small growth; that of large growth, 
on the rich lands of the Mississippi, is used for fuel on western steamboats, but the small 
growth will hardly prove fit for use in locomotives. It will not, certainly, be good fuel for 
that purpose. Opinions differ as to its fitness for ties, even for a temporary track by which to 
reach supplies of better lumber for a permanent road. By some it is said to be totally unfit 
for this purpose, as it will not hold a nail. 
TIES, LUMBER, &C. 
The points of supply of good timber are Little Falls, Mississippi river; Bed river, 
Mouse river, Bear’s-Paw mountains, the Three Buttes, and the western slopes of the Kocky 
mountains. 
The distances apart of these points, over which ties and lumber generally must be trans¬ 
ported up the Missouri, are— 
From Little Falls to Red river, 100 miles ; 
From Red river to Mouse river, 260 miles ; 
From Mouse river to Bear’s-Paw mountains, 470 miles ; 
From Bear’s-Paw mountains to western slope of Rocky mountains, 170 miles ; or, 
From Three Buttes to western slope of Rocky mountains, 130 miles. 
West of the Rocky mountains the country is well supplied with lumber throughout, except 
for the space of 110 miles in crossing the plains of the Columbia. 
It will cost to transport lumber great distances by the built portions of the road, $4 50 
per 1,000 feet per 100 miles. 
FUEL. 
Supposing the road supplied with fuel, in the districts destitute of it, from the coal-fields 
of Illinois, the nearest point to St. Paul is Port Byron on the Mississippi, 330 miles from St. 
Paul, and coal will probably cost at St. Paul from $4 to $6 per ton. 
As coal can be transported three and a half times as far as wood, and be equally economical 
for locomotive use, it may be used over 600 miles of the northern route, beginning 100 miles 
west of the Mississippi, at an average cost to the road of from $15 to $17 per ton. This esti¬ 
mate is made merely to show what would be the cost over these portions of the route if cotton¬ 
wood cannot be used for fuel. The cost of wood per cord, for 200 miles east of the Rocky 
mountains, would be in the same proportion. The sources of supply of good fuel from Red and 
Mouse rivers, Bear’s-Paw mountains, and the Three Buttes, will of course be availed of, so far 
as they can be economically. 
The navigation of the Missouri river to Fort Union is closed by ice four or five months in 
the year; that of the Mississippi, at St. Paul, about four and a half months, from the latter 
part of November to early in April. 
