of the South Pass, over the great Wahsatch mountain range, placing the line under the further liability of subsequent descent to the level of the Salt Lake valley.*

My own report removed the objection to that portion of the route through the Black hills, because I adopted a different line of exploration, availing myself of all side hill approaches of a section of country over sixty miles in breadth; but I was unable to do more than suggest an entire change in the system of location regarding the lines west of the South Pass. Instead of descending the rapidly falling valley of Green river, which would be decidedly against that important and well known rule of railroad engineering, never to surrender height accomplished in mountain approach, and while the summit was still unsurmounted, I proposed heading Green river valley, and by the line of the foot hill springs, passing over the Wahsatch mountains to the waters of Snake river. The grand summit section of the continent having thus been overcome without difficulty, and by low grades, the passage from Snake river to Oregon and Puget's Sound, and from Snake river to the plains of the Great Basin, was very highly practicable. But by reference to my report of 1854 it will be seen that I apprehended the route from the South Pass to the head waters of the Snake to be an untimbered, ungrassed plain; a portion of that terrible region yearly traversed by our overland emigration, and so graphically described by Colonel Cooke, of the Utah army. It was explored the present season, and found not only to be adapted for the route of a wagon road, avoiding the deleterious and ungrassed regions of the south, but also to be a most richly timbered, arable region for the passage of railroads. The immense forests of yellow pine and fir which line this route, and the easy grades by which a railroad may make passage from the South Pass to the valley of the Snake, and thence over a flat gravel plain to the edge of the Great Salt Lake, have caused me to change the whole programme of the construction of a railroad through the South Pass. Not only are those claims of the question suddenly made prominent by the present aspect of the Mormon population thus best answered, but the whole solution of the great problem of overland transportation by rail equally aided by the discoveries of the present season.

My reply to that clause of the resolution requesting information as to the practicability of railroads through the South Pass, might be to state that any class of railroad is practicable through the South Pass; but in reply to those clauses desiring "the best method of constructing a road through the South Pass, and any information in respect to the same, obtained in my recent explorations," I transmit my professional opinion of what I believe to be the most rapid and expedient method of building a road. A railroad which, suited to military and mail transportation, can reach the waters of Salt Lake and the Salt Lake city in three years from the time of its commencement, if forwarded

*The officer in charge of the resolution of the rough data of the old reconnoissances, made the best use of the materials of his command, and no remarks of this paper must be interpreted as a reflection upon the able and scientific labors which have given to the country so much valuable information on the subject of railroads to the Pacific, on climates, soils, and resources of routes.

with the usual energy of American movements, and under a proper programme for overcoming the difficulties of construction.

From the mouth of the Platte river to the base of the Black hills, a distance of over five hundred miles, as before described, the route of the South Pass is a flat plain of gravel sub-strata, rising at an inclination of about eight feet per mile, and without a break in surface, towards the mountains. The lower end of the river valley is fairly wooded with the cotton. Nearer the mountains the foot hills are well timbered with cedar, yellow pine, and fir. Excellent building stone is abundant along the line, and large coal fields occur at various points, and at the eastern extremity. Upon this flat plain rails can be laid without grading. The superstructure can progress at the rate of one mile per day, or faster, if circumstances justify the additional expense. A light railroad, over which trains can pass with facility, and even at high rates of speed, would thus reach Fort Laramie in less than three years, and become the initiative or preliminary step toward the building of a railroad of a more ponderous class, either for the transportation of Pacific commerce, or as adapted to the increased business of the line, when developed by settlements.

The Road.

The class or medium of the preliminary or light railroad would be governed by circumstances; but, under the present contingency of the Mormon war, and the absolute necessity of some rapid and effective means of military transportation to be immediately applied, I would advise the preliminary use of as light a rail as forty pounds per yard. The natural gradient of the Platte valley of eight feet per mile, does not require weighty tread of locomotives "to procure adhesion," and, as very light engines can thus be made of use, a heavy rail is not required.

The rail of forty pounds per yard is easier laid than that of sixty pounds, the class now in general use for light roads. Two men can readily handle and place the lighter rail, and adjust chairs at joints, while, in cold weather, the laying of heavier rails is a more ponderous and tedious operation. One third of the transportation is saved by the use of the lighter rail. If laid in the winter upon ice, snow, or over frozen earth, when the superstructure settles out of line and level during spring thaws, it can be brought to surface again by shimming and chucking for the passage of locomotives, and by the use of the weighty lever bars used in repairs, while to place a weightier rail in running order after it is bent over uneven surface, it is often necessary to take up the road that the bars may be straightened by a machine.

The light rail therefore is preferable to the weighty one because it is cheaper, because with the same cost of transportation a third more length of rail can be furnished and laid in a shorter space of time, because when out of surface it is easier brought to line and level, and because when in operation it will, from the nature of the work, permit the performance of all that a heavier rail would admit of doing. Such rails can be procured in quantity at various points along the western

navigable rivers and can be deposited by water transportation, without breaking bulk at the mouth of the Platte. Working parties being kept in advance of the line of superstructure, dressing the surface, making the necessary small water drains and preparing the cottonwood cross ties for service, during the summer season the road could progress very rapidly. Even in winter, by the use of houses upon car wheels and turn outs, the road could progress.

The road from Fort Laramie to the South Pass.

Thirty miles beyond Fort Laramie the broken and undulating surfaces of the Black hills are encountered, precluding the use of the preliminary iron road with economy, unless by the laying of a weighty rail and the application of the high grade locomotive. It is not advisable to attempt the expense of transporting heavy rails to this part of the road, to be worked at high cost and eventually renewed, even if the nation could wait for it, when there are other m re applicable means of solving the question. Neither is it expedient to postpone the development of the route by rail, until a graded road could pass through this broken section by reduction of surface.

I propose therefore that on the commencement of the light iron road at Missouri river, steam saw-mills and pile drivers shall be transported by wagon trains to the entrance of the Black hills, and a simple piling road, elevated above the surface of the earth as circumstances require, shall supersede wagon and precede steam transportation. This road to consist of sawed wooden rails, and be worked by draught animals for the transportation of mails, passengers, military supplies, and troops. Through the great timbered regions of the upper Wahsatch mountains this road could progress very rapidly. Along the whole line all subsequent works of construction could be carried on with economy and despatch from the cheap and effective transportation afforded. There is hardly a large public work in the United States attempted or built without the use of the wooden rail. In northern Maine and Wisconsin rafting waters and "log driving" streams are united, and sections of country offering great natural obstacles to their extension are thrown open by wooden railroads. Coal mines, ice lakes, quarries, all natural depots of supplies, are developed by our energetic population by wooden railroads, when the iron road is inapplicable or too extensive. When constructed, iron rails and locomotives could be carried upon the one named, at very low cost, to the flat plains of Humboldt river, 350 miles in length, and extending to the eastern settlements of the Pacific. Much of the intermediate section is suited to the use of the iron rail without grading. Not less than 1,200 miles of the route described could thus be worked by locomotives at a speed of 18 miles per hour. The wooden road over steeper grades, worked by mules and horses, would admit of passenger, mail and military transportation at a speed of ten miles per hour. There is no danger to be apprehended from snow upon the iron rail from Missouri river to Fort Laramine; from Fort Laramine to the plains of Snake river the elevation of the road guards against it, and the entire route could be worked throughout the year. The passage of the South Pass

The descent

would be made at a point about 7,400 feet above the sea. to the heads of the Big and Little Sandys, to the new forks of Green river, to the main stream, to the long plain where the line would. again ascend towards the summit of the McDougal Pass, involves but slight loss of grade. The average height above the sea of the section, which is over one hundred miles in length, is from 6,900 to 7,000 feet. The passage to the first water of the Snake by McDougal's Gap can be made without ledge-cutting, upon grades of 40 feet per mile. But by detour the line can pass to the flat plains of Snake river without serious loss or gain of grade. Through this pass by detour the meat packers of old Fort Bonneville "went to Buffalo" (a technical term) throughout the year. A cut-off can be made on the Salt Lake route, if deemed expedient in permanent construction, by the line of Thompson's Pass, through which it is now proposed to build the new wagon road. This cut-off reaches the Bear river valley and the Salt Lake on grades of 50 feet, but regarding a connexion with Columbia valley and Puget's Sound is not, in my own estimation, the best line. It requires a tunnel of half a mile, and is therefore not available for a preliminary railroad. The reason for placing the wagon road through this pass is because the appropriation is so reduced, by the operations of the present year, that the more northern line cannot probably be built with the sum remaining. The northern is the shortest route to California.

Resources of the country.

This line of communication, which passes near the head of Green river, is the best approach to some of the most important sections of the interior.

Little reliable information exists of these very valuable regions, which, in view of a pending national calamity, are especially worthy the attention of government. From the arable grounds of the Salt Lake valley, through the numerous valleys and timbered regions of the Wahsatch mountains, towards the head of Wind river, to the Beaver Head, and to the St. Mary's valley of the north, occur available and peculiarly favorable locations for settlements. There are the numerous herding grounds of the Indians and mountaineers, and here are recruited and fattened in the open air and during winter the worn down cattle, mules, and horses bought up by traders from the later overland emigration. It is from these valleys that Colonel Johnson has recently been furnished with a drove of fat cattle, needed during his present necessities from wintering among the sand plains of the south. The half-breed horses raised by the mountaineers from a cross between the larger animals of the settlements and the Indian pony, reared in the open air and without forage, are some of the finest animals I have ever seen. Durham short-horned cattle, a delicate breed, and not usually thought adapted to exposure, are raised here, and wintered without shelter, upon the natural grass of the mountains. Hay is never cut by the mountaineers, yet this celebrated stock, fattened upon the bunch grass, grows larger than any I have seen in the States. John Grant, a well known trader, who has raised a large

stock of Durham milch cows and steers and American horses, winters yearly in the great valleys of the mountains, with no shelter but the common Indian lodge of dressed elk or buffalo skin.

It is very evident that if government would take steps to throw open the Black hills region and this cordon of beautiful valleys by grants of lands to actual settlers, and by providing some effectual means of transportation through the South Pass, or the pass about 30 miles north of it, the Mormon question would not long require solution by an increase of the standing army.

In this view the information gained by the late exploration is very important. If the Mormons are attacked by such forces of military troops as to be driven from their present localities, they will undoubtedly occupy the very valleys to which I refer. Reaching the wildest fastnesses of the mountains, and becoming more assimilated with the Indians, they would at length extend their predatory bands to the Saskatchawan of the north and the great eastern bison ranges. From these points they could for many years harass and obstruct all northern and central overland emigration.

Again, if they are compelled to forsake their present farms, destroy their costly irrigation ditches, and the improvements by which alone. the valley of the Great Salt Lake has been made suitable for the permanent abiding place of a white population, and go to the south, or even leave the continent, our overland emigration will be deprived of those great way stations of supplies, which have been of such service to it in the interchange of cattle, horses, and the furnishing of provisions at low cost. Either of these is a conclusive argument in favor of the development of the more northern valleys by settlements.

The nation, especially the northern and central sections of the Union, cannot afford to lose the advantages of the Mormon supply stations, unless others are provided. It costs twenty (20) cents a pound to transport provisions from Missouri river to the mountains; but flour could be bought at the Mormon settlements (1854 and 1857) at four (4) cents the pound; at the emigrant road Mormon stations of the South Pass for ten (10) cents. Even should this question of Mormon hostilities eventually bear a different aspect, the development of the northern valleys by settlement is imperative.

Having been much exposed in the passes of the central mountains during two protracted explorations, with very small parties of men, and especially the last season, when the Mormons were expecting attacks from the government military forces, I wish, in this connexion, to place on record my own opinion and that of my party in favor of the masses of the Utah population. This opinion is not unimportant at a time when the public mind is so inflamed against the Mormons as to believe that no good can come of any further connexion with them. Often reduced to great straits for provisions and supplies, I was uniformly relieved, and in several instances most kindly and hospitably entertained, by that distant class of our fellow-citizens. It cannot be denied that among this peculiar people exists as much thorough push, practical energy, and determined movement as are found in the republic. Both in founding the colonies of Salt Lake and throwing open that arid desolate section to settlements, they have