182 
CASCADES AND LINE OF SNOQUALME PASS. 
and a half miles, with a grade of 15.2 feet per mile, and but little side-cutting, through a thickly 
timbered country, as far as Kitchelus. 
The divide must now be pierced by a tunnel 11,840 yards long, of a character similar to the 
one considered above. 
The grade to the Snoqualme falls will then be 46.3 feet per mile; all other circumstances 
unchanged. 
These two methods of passing the divide are given as the only means that have suggested them¬ 
selves to me, for overcoming the obstacles presented by tlie best pass north of the Columbia 
river. The elevation of the different points was taken with the barometer, from the eastward to a 
point about three miles west of the summit; the distances estimated by parties passing over the 
ground. It must be clearly understood that the statements just made are the results of a recon¬ 
naissance with no other instruments than a compass and barometer, and that they are given merely 
as the best approximations that could be made under the circumstances; liable to modification 
upon any future examination, made with more leisure and better instruments. Such an examina¬ 
tion may prove the estimated length of the tunnels to be slightly too great, but will rather 
increase, than decrease, the grades as given above. The great difficulty in the case consists in the 
short distance available for effecting the descent from the summit to the sound. 
During the past summer and fall, and the present winter, I, and the gentlemen of my party, 
spared no pains in inquiring of the Indians as to the quantity and nature of the snow in the 
mountains during the winter. We examined the snow-marks on the trees in the passes; in more 
than one instance our guides pointed out to us, far above our heads, where they, standing on 
the snow, had broken off branches from the trees. 
All the information thus obtained from different sources, at different times, and various places, 
was perfectly consistent, and is fully sustained by facts known in regard to the Mt. Hood 
immigrant trail, the Sierra Nevada, Coast range, &c. We all agreed in the opinion, thus founded, 
that in ordinary winters there could not be less than from twenty to twenty-five feet of snow 
in the passes. 
Mr. Tinkham having crossed the mountains by the main Yakima Pass on the 21st January, 
1854, reports seven feet of snow in the pass. I have every desire to give this report its due 
weight, and think it can readily be explained by the fact that this has, thus far, been a remarkably 
dry season, and that perhaps the greatest amount of snow may usually be found in the mountains 
at a later period than this. In any event, I still remain of the opinion that, in ordinary winters, 
not less than from twenty to twenty-five feet of snow will be found in the passes during the most 
unfavorable months of the year. 
With regard to the Columbia River Pass, I am not prepared to speak so much in detail. The 
last barometer being broken before we reached there on our return, and for other good reasons, I 
passed down by water. Mr. Lander, however, travelled the greater part of the distance by land; 
and as his examination corroborates the opinion I formed at the time, I shall content myself with 
expressing in general terms the nature of that pass. 
'The only tunnel required will be to effect the passage around Cape Horn mountain; this will 
not exceed seven hundred feet in length, and a close examination may prove even this to be 
unnecessary. There need be no gradient to exceed ten feet per mile; no trouble of any conse¬ 
quence is to be apprehended from the snow; the work will be prosecuted with much greater 
rapidity and economy—the supplies much more easily furnished than on the Yakima route. 
The distance from the mouth of Snake river to Seattle, by this pass, is about one hundred and 
forty miles longer than by the Yakima Pass; considerable side-cutting in rock will be necessary. 
The road should follow the Columbia to the valley of the Cowlitz; and following that valley, 
take as direct a line as possible from the “Farms” to Seattle. The country is of such a nature 
that there will be no difficulty in obtaining suitable gradients; a great part of the distance from 
the' Cowlitz Farms to Seattle will be through gravelly prairies. 
