26 
CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THIS RECONNAISSANCE WAS CONDUCTED. 
But coeval with the growth of California had been that of the northwestern Territories. The 
great harbors of the Pacific were San Francisco and Puget Sound, of which the latter was the 
superior. There were seven hundred miles of coast between them. With a railroad from the 
east to San Francisco, it was evident that a short period of years would require the extension 
of a line up the coast to Puget Sound. But this was a local contingency; and how far prefera¬ 
ble in first location was a road, the main trunk of which, extending from the mouth of the 
Platte toward the Salt Lake City, would there meet two great lines—one from the hay of San 
Francisco, the other by the valley of the Columbia from Puget Sound—resolving (by the mere 
choice of a location of the railroad to San Francisco) the extension of a road from the east to 
Puget Sound, to the mere completion of a branch road of eight hundred miles. In reviewing 
this matter, it will he seen, then, that the first step in the premises was an attempt to preserve 
the character of the northern line, already seriously affected by the severe nature of the rocky 
and mountainous country it had traversed, by a deflection south to the great valley of Columbia 
river, to avoid the necessity of tunnelling the Cascade mountains at a nearly impracticable pass. 
But the second step involved in the connexion was to waive all claims of the extreme northern 
route to notice, until a distinct route between Puget Sound and the southernmost waters of 
Lake Michigan was examined, that a comparison between the two routes, or broad divisions, 
might be instituted; and in the meantime to distinctly state to the nation that the primary 
object of the extreme northern exploration, which was the finding of a facile and favorable 
railroad route of minimum distance between eastern navigable waters and Puget Sound, had 
in a measure failed, having been surrendered to procure location. This was the plainest and 
most definite view of the question. 
The superior and distinctive feature of an extreme northern route to the Pacific was the ap¬ 
parent short distance between the navigable waters of Lake Superior and Puget Sound. This 
distinctive feature was seriously modified by the fact that the harbors of Lake Superior were 
frozen or obstructed by ice during a large portion of the year ; and that during that period a 
railway terminating so far to the north would debouche directly into foreign or Canadian roads, 
and being, therefore, more particularly the requirement of a foreign than a national interest, 
might more properly exist as developed by the investment of foreign rather than of American 
capital. This presumption was guarded against by the connexion of the northern route with 
the Mississippi river at St. Paul, Minnesota, and by direct connexion with railroads already 
constructed through central American territory at the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. 
But the distinctive feature of the extreme northern route to Puget Sound, which was the 
shortest distance between termini, having been surrendered to procure location, the distance 
between the southern shore of Lake Michigan and the western terminus appeared no greater 
upon the southern than upon the northern route to Puget Sound. 
It would not, then, be a warrantable procedure to extend a railway over the extreme northern 
route to Puget Sound, and so near an exposed frontier, unless it offered superior facilities for 
developing national territory, or for ready railway construction. But a line passing along the 
frontier was not in a position to develop national territory; and regarding railway construction, 
u nearly impracticable” obstacles had already directed examinations further south. 
The last presentation of the problem was the engineering feature, and to this requisition the 
examination of the new route from Puget Sound to Lake Michigan was distinctly referred. 
In the development of this engineering requirement, the opportunity of a connexion with the 
great northern or central route to California was disclosed. 
When the latter consideration came into the study, it concluded argument upon the subject, 
since it reduced the completion of a railroad to Puget Sound to the mere construction of a spur 
line from the vicinity of the South Pass to Puget Sound. 
It will be seen, then, that the whole question had changed in its character, and, no longer 
presenting a certain paramount claim to notice, became affected by interests, in no degree sub¬ 
ordinate, as engineering and national considerations were brought to bear upon it. The subject 
