RAILROAD REPORT—ROUTE WEST OE CASCADE RANGE. 
55 
It is proper to state why the altitude of the divide between Sacramento and Shasta rivers has 
been assumed at 3,500 feet, on profile No. 2, sheet No. 2, upon which the Sacramento river 
route is indicated for the proposed railroad line. This is only an approximation to the truth ; 
hut I believe it worthy of some reliance for the following reasons. It will be noticed in the 
report upon the wagon road from Yreka to Shasta, contained in the last note, that this passage 
occurs: “Following, as it (the proposed wagon road) does, the course of a river (the Sacra¬ 
mento) until it arrives at its source, it then enters a level plain, and no dividing ridges are to 
he crossed separating stream from stream, as is the case with nearly all the wagon roads which 
have been constructed in like cases.” On profile No. 1, sheet No. 2, representing the surveyed 
line, it will he seen that Shasta Butte rises from a natural eminence, which extends many miles 
both north and south of the mountain. The greatest altitude upon this pedestal of the Butte, 
where we crossed it, is, without taking into account isolated ridges, 3,457 feet. These two 
facts have led me to assume an altitude of 3,500 feet for the divide. This altitude gives an 
average descent of more than forty feet per mile to Shasta river, and to the Sacramento river 
above Johnson’s ferry ; descents, which, in my opinion, are very much greater than the 
appearances of the streams justify. Any less altitude would, of course, render the route more 
favorable to the construction of a railroad. 
As soon as the open portion of the Sacramento valley should he gained, there would he no 
further difficulty in reaching Fort Reading with easy grades. The total distance from Yreka 
to the Fort, by this route, is 120 miles. 
that a stock company be formed, and a charter applied for at the next session of the legislature. This plan will insure the 
early completion of an enterprize which will open an exhaustless mining region, now nearly untouched, and place the town of 
Yreka, and the whole northern portion of the State, now so difficult of access even by pack trains, within five or six days’ travel, 
by loaded wagons, of the different depots in Sacramento valley. 
E. C. GILLETTE. 
A. SKILLMAN. 
W. W. TRACY. 
JOHN J. TOMLINSON. 
WM. A. MIX. 
R. A. McCABE. 
M. MITCHELL. 
J. TYSON. 
