ROUTE FROM BENICIA TO LIVERMORE’S. 
9 
different accounts have been given of it by the few who have explored small portions of it. It 
has been represented by many as being in parts vast plains, while others, who have explored 
perhaps different parts, make it very broken and mountainous. No streams flow from it through 
the Coast range ; and as most of the streams known to exist in it are known to lose themselves, 
it has been called, very properly, the “ G-reat Basin.” 
It is evident that any railroad approaching the Pacific coast from the east must cross a portion 
of this Great Basin, when it will reach either the base of the Sierra Nevada or the Coast range, 
and, to reach the ocean, it must cross one or both of them. One main object of this survey is 
to ascertain if a railroad can cross the Sierra and Coast range ; the other to explore the Great 
Basin, to ascertain its adaptability for such constructions. 
As it is well known there is no impediment to the construction of a road to the Tulare valley 
from the waters of San Francisco bay, in order to accomplish the above objects I determined to 
proceed at once to the head of that valley, where the Sierra is supposed to be the lowest, and 
there examine all the passes leading into it. 
FROM BEMCIA TO LIVERMORE’S. 
Benicia, formerly the capital of the State of California, is situated on the Straits of Carquines, 
which connect Suisun and San Pablo bays. It is on the north side of these straits, and is 
STRAITS OF CARQUINES AND MARTINEZ, AS SEEN FROM BENICIA. 
twenty-five miles above San Francisco. Adjoining the town is a military post and arsenal, 
and the principal depot of quartermaster and commissary stores for the department of the 
Pacific. 
