RAILROAD REPORT—ROUTE EAST OF CASCADE RANGE. 
41 
Water-courses —Continued. 
Name of stream. 
Dist. from 
Frdmont. 
Length of 
bridge. 
Slougli_ 
Miles. 
112. 2 
Feet. 
20 
Slough_ 
112. 2 
10 
Slough_ 
112. 2 
15 
Creek with water__ 
113. 4 
25 
Dry gully_ 
113.7 
90 
Dry gully___ 
111. 9 
60 
Drv srullv_ 
111. 9 
30 
Dry gully_ 
115. 8 
50 
Seven Mile creek_ 
118. 7 
25 
Beaver creek_ 
122.4 
30 
Tiiver creek_._ 
129. 8 
20 
Battle creek._ 
134. 3 
50 
Bear creek_...... 
137. 9 
20 
Cow creek___ 
140. 3 
50 
Remarks. 
1- These three sloughs are close together and dry 
Name not known... 
Near junction with Sacramento 
Fort Reading. 
PROPOSED RAILROAD ROUTE FROM FORT READING TO VANCOUVER, EAST OF THE CASCADE RANGE 
SURVEYED BY LIEUTENANT WILLIAMSON. 
In preparing the following description of this route, I have been careful to express Lieutenant 
Williamson’s ideas, as far as they are known to me. As, however, he seldom referred directly 
to the railroad, in his journal, I have sometimes been unable to ascertain definitely what his 
opinion was. In such cases, I have given my own. 
With the exception of the Willamette valley and a small portion of the Sacramento valley, 
the regions traversed by this route are unsettled, and, as a general thing, barren in their character. 
The rocks are chiefly of volcanic origin. The few fertile spots are usually difficult of access, 
and the country is unfitted to support a civilized population. 
Of the climate of the region east of the Cascade Range, traversed by this route, we have no 
definite knowledge, founded upon long continued observations ; hut it is well known that little 
or no rain falls during several months of the year, and that the whole region is often covered 
with snow in the winter. Colonel J. C. Fremont, in traversing it during the winter of 1843-44, 
found the snow occasionally three feet in depth, and the climate severe. In the latter part of 
August, water froze at night in our camps near the head of Des Chutes valley, at an elevation 
of only about 4,200 feet above the sea. In my opinion, there would he danger of occasional 
obstruction from snow, during a few months in the year, should a railroad ever he constructed 
on this plateau. 
The supply of water, fuel, and building materials is almost unlimited, upon the whole route. 
The only place where there is any deficiency of timber in the immediate vicinity of the trail, is 
near Lost river and Rhett lake, and there it can he easily obtained from the neighboring hills. 
There is no lack of water, or good building stone, at any point upon the line. It only remains 
to describe the difficulties of actual construction. The grades will not, as a general thing, he 
mentioned in this report, as those upon the travelled route are given on profile No. 1, sheet No. 
1, and those upon the proposed railroad line, on profile No. 2, of the same sheet, and also in 
6 X 
