BUSINESS OF THE ROAD.—CONNEXION WITH EASTERN ROADS. 
49 
fertile valleys of the rivers of Texas, both above and below, it seems not unreasonable to antici¬ 
pate from this source a very large increase to the business of the railroad. 
The emigration to California and New Mexico would not only concentrate necessarily upon 
the route, and contribute largely to its profits, but would tend, in a remarkable degree, to 
develop the stock-raising advantages of New Mexico and western Texas. By pursuing this 
route the emigrant would overcome eight hundred miles of distance, over the worst portion of 
bis route to California, and a journey of two months would be reduced in time to as many 
days. He would find himself in the valley of the Bio Grande, where stock of all kinds is 
cheaper than at the points from which he started, and where wagons, provisions, and every 
necessary could he readily and cheaply supplied, should the demand he sufficient to encourage 
the production of such articles. From thence he would have a journey to California with 
wagons of only eight hundred miles, and through a country where severity of climate is 
unknown. It seems proper to consider this source of profit also as an important element in the 
business of the road. 
These sources of business would undoubtedly build up, at the point where the railroad 
terminated on the Bio Grande, a populous town, which would he the depot of the immense 
merchandise to he distributed over New Mexico and the States of Chihuahua, Sonora, and 
Durango; and as nature has marked unmistakably the point at which the road must approach 
and cross the river at Molino, this point will undoubtedly add another instance to the rapid 
growth of cities in the West. 
The government annually expends very large sums for transporting troops and supplies to 
the frontier posts of Texas, and to the military department of New Mexico, which expendi¬ 
tures, although considerably reduced by the less expensive charges on a railroad, could also he 
fairly exhibited as a prospective source of profit. 
I have neither the time nor the means at present to enter into detailed estimates of the value 
of the business accumulated from the sources to which I have referred; hut I am of opinion 
that examination of the subject will fully justify the belief of which I am fully possessed, that 
a railroad across northern Texas will he profitable, even if not continued beyond El Paso. 
It seems proper also that I should refer in this place to the eastern terminus of this survey, 
to which there are some objections as a terminus to a railroad which looks to a connexion with 
the East. 
The Bed river from Preston to Fulton, in Arkansas, has a direction very nearly east, and I 
would suggest as forcibly as possible the continuation of this line in the direction of the latter 
point. The dividing ridge between the waters of the Trinity and Bed rivers is in all respects 
of extreme practicability for the construction of a railroad, and the eastern terminus would he 
thrown forward to a point where a series of railroads from every direction is rapidly concen¬ 
trating. By this extension, also, the range of the Ozark mountains, which interpose in the 
direct line between Preston and Little Bock, or Memphis, is completely turned at its southern 
extremity, and the surveys of the route from Little Bock to Fulton, which had just been com¬ 
pleted when I reached the frontier of Arkansas, exhibited a route entirely favorable. It would 
not he necessary to continue the examination of the route from Preston to Fulton, as the char¬ 
acter of the country and its practicability are well known. 
In the consideration of a proposed eastern terminus of the Pacific railroad it has been urged, 
as a point of much consequence, that it should he so placed as to insure the earliest and most 
favorable connexion with the lines of railroad at present built, or in process of construction; 
and it therefore seems proper that I should exhibit what advantages of the kind are offered by 
the route now in question. Fulton, in Arkansas, its proposed eastern terminus, is the centre to 
which many lines of railroad are now concentrating, and which will undoubtedly he finished as 
soon as the terminus of the Pacific railroad shall be established, and long before the road can 
be built. 
From Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio, where it connects with the great Central road of mi¬ 
le 
