34 
POST ROUTE FROM MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO PACIFIC OCEAN. 
hundred and seventy miles, and thence to San Diego two hundred and twenty miles, giving a 
distance of three hundred and ninety miles, which can he overcome in eight days. Thus the 
entire distance from Fulton to San Diego, less than one thousand six hundred miles, can he 
made in less than thirty days. This, of course, involves the necessity of preparing the road, 
and of establishing a liberal supply of men and animals for relays along the route, and 
numerous stations well stocked with forage. The mail has been carried from El Paso to San 
Antonio, Texas, in an ambulance, in fifteen days, and having, for about five hundred and 
forty miles, but one set of extra animals, which were driven along to alternate with those in 
harness. The distance is six hundred and seventy-three miles, giving an average of forty- 
four miles per diem.* 
3 This estimate is based upon the present system of carrying the mail from San Antonio, Texas, to the Rio Grande. 
