of the western portion of this line, and to the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railway Company, incorporated under the laws of Kansas, the construction of the southern branch, it incorporated the Union Pacific Railway Company, with a capital of $10,000,000, for the construction of the eastern portion of the main line. To each of these companies the odd-numbered sections of public lands for ten miles on each side of their respective lines were granted as subsidies to aid in their construction. In addition to this landed endowment, government loaned its credit to the amount of $16,000 per mile, on the completion of each section of forty consecutive miles, in bonds of $1,000 each, whose delivery was to constitute ipso facto a first mortgage on the road and its appurtenances for the repayment of the loan. For the portions of the road extending one hundred and fifty miles westwardly from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, and the same distance eastwardly from the western base of the Sierra Nevadas, the amount of government bonds loaned per mile was trebled, and for the intervening sections it was doubled.

By act of July 2, 1864, the land grant was doubled, embracing the odd-numbered sections within twenty miles of the line on both sides, and each company was permitted to issue bonds equal to the amount per mile loaned by the government, the lien of the latter being subordinate to that of the former. The amount of landed subsidy accruing under the grants to the Central Pacific, Union Pacific, and Kansas Pacific companies, for the construction of the main line and the southern branch, will not be less than 35,000,000 acres, of which only 164,801.48 have, as yet, been certified and patented. The total amount of government bonds issued to these companies is $51,009,000, being $26,638,000 to the Union Pacific and $24,371,000 to the Central Pacific.

These imperial subsidies find no parallel in history; they are significant indications of the enormous financial power of a high civilization organized upon the normal basis of an intelligent democracy. The land grants are equal to the united areas of New York and New Jersey, while the government credit loan surpasses the most splendid examples on record of royal or imperial munificence. That such a donation should be made, and such enormous financial obligations assumed, by a young nation in the darkest hour of its struggle for existence, and the permanent establishment of the great principles on which it is founded, exhibited a matchless reliance upon its own resources, and an invincible determination to achieve the grandest results of civilization which have been so amply illustrated.

The magnitude of the task of constructing the initial line of transcontinental railway, it is now ascertained, was largely overrated, and immense profits have consequently accrued to the fortunate capitalists whose faith was proof against the imposing front of untried difficulties that then beset the enterprise. But this is one of the necessary incidents of grand undertakings. The benefits accruing to the nation and to humanity would warrant the expenditure of ten times the cost already incurred. There are features in the plan of landed endowment of these and other railroads which the increasing light of experience has shown to be objectionable. The conveyance by patent to the railway companies of such immense bodies of real estate affords a nucleus for the formation of formidable landed monopolies. It is suggested that hereafter such untoward results would be avoided by retaining the lands donated to railroads in the hands of the government, and appropriating the proceeds of their sale, as fast as disposed of, to companies building the same, and then to restrict such grants to works of great public necessity.

The operations of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Kansas Pacific companies, in the construction of their respective lines, exhibit a combination of skill and energy that is one of the marvels of the age. The Union Pacific company commenced building from Omaha, its eastern terminus, in 1865, finishing fifty miles during that year. In the construction of the lighter portions of the route a facility and rapidity of movement were acquired which would transcend all power of belief, were not our ideas so expanded by the wonders multiplying around us. As the work advanced from its base of supplies into the interior wilderness, notwithstanding the increasing difficulty and expense of transportation, the rate of construction seemed to be accelerated. The materials for superstructure of each mile of the road, weighing not less than three hundred tons, were necessarily transported along the entire line from Omaha, besides the supplies necessary for the subsistence of the grand army of workmen and draught animals. Passing the Laramie Plains and crossing the first range of the Rocky Mountains, the operations of construction were carried on in the dreary alkali desert, through which water as well as other supplies must be transported. Supplies, as heretofore stated, were gathered a thousand miles eastward, accumulated in enormous magazines at eligible points of distribution, and transported to their respective localities, without interfering in the least with the regularity of the work. In spite of these difficulties the rate of construction rose to six or eight miles per day. The same admirable capacity for organization was manifested, with no less remarkable results, in the construction of the road through the mountain regions. The most striking achievement, however, in the difficult portions of the enterprise, was by the Central Pacific company on the west end of the line. The passage of the Sierra Nevada is regarded by professional authorities as a masterpiece of engineering and executive energy and skill. To cross the maximum summit, seven thousand and forty-two feet above sea-level, within one hundred miles of the tidal waters of the Pacific, required a scientific distribution of the ascent in order to render it practicable to ordinary locomotives, and an expensive construction, which are but imperfectly realized even by intelligent and careful readers. The Union Pacific railroad, in crossing the Rocky Mountain chain attained a higher altitude, but its grades were much lighter, being spread over a greater range of country. The Central Pacific, however, secured'a remarkably direct alignment, using a minimum radius of five hundred and seventythree feet. Its maximum grades are one hundred and sixteen feet per mile, to which, by act of Congress, all the Pacific roads are restricted. While the summit was being perforated with a tunnel seventeen hundred feet long, the iron rails were dragged over for the simultaneous construction of the sections beyond. A unique feature in the construction of this route is a range of shed of heavy timber, forty miles long, for protection against the snow. In the more level country east of the Sierras the Central company was enabled to emulate the rapidity of movement of the Union Pacific, and a junction was effected May, 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, near the head of Salt Lake.

Thus was completed the initial line of trans-continental railway communication. When the enormous extent of the work is considered, and especially the towering obstacles in the more difficult portions of the line, we may well be astonished at the result, illustrating the American name with a glory uneclipsed by any former achievement in our brief but eventful history.

What has thus been accomplished is only the starting-point of a still nobler career.

It is but the preliminary demonstration of the wonderful

capacities of railway enterprise for the amelioration of society and the subjection of the earth's resources to the wants of civilized man.

The equipment of these roads is of the first character, and constructed by the best mechanical skill which science can afford. They have established workshops for the construction of their own rolling-stock-a system which the experience of railroads in this country has fully vindicated. They now constitute a great steam highway, traversing the region now occupied by ten States and Territories. Of these, California has a population of 600,000; Nevada, 60,000; Oregon, 100,000; Idaho, 50,000; Montana, 50,000; Utah, 150,000; Colorado, 80,000; Wyoming, 20,000; Dakota, 20,000; and Nebraska, 150,000, making a total of over 1,200,000. The completion of this route has enormously stimulated the annual increase of these populations by immigration. We may reasonably expect that the beneficent provisions of our pre-emption and homestead laws will soon be laid under contribution by millions of settlers. A scientific agriculture and a more skillful mining industry will soon swell the volume of raw production throughout these roads, and demand an immense increase in transportation. In process of time there is reason to hope that social science will crown her practical benefits by devising means for reclamation of even the alkali regions of the Rocky Mountain plateau. Within the limit of the so-called American Desert will yet grow immense forests from seed planted by the hand of man, covering bleak ridges and plains, arresting excessive evaporation, ameliorating climates. A judicious irrigation will redeem millions of acres from sterility, and add magnificent tracts to the productive area of the nation. The generous fruits and the heavier cereals will supply vegetable food in enlarged quantities; while the immense herd of domestic animals, grazing upon the inarable tracts of hill and mountain, will increase the volume of animal products for the sustenance of the people. The enhanced yield of the precious metals will enlarge the basis of exchanges, while the exploitation of useful minerals, by enhancing raw production, will give rise to a mechanical industry of splendid proportions.

The domestic commerce resulting from the exchange of these raw and manufactured products, will be of transcendent value. The immense proportions of the foreign trade of a nation are indicative of general prosperity only when these bear but a small ratio to the domestic trade. It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that we recognize an immense preponderance in our home commerce. It is believed that these domestic activities will far overtax the present or prospective capacities of the single line of trans-continental railway already completed. When, in addition to this, the Pacific roads are called upon to meet the demands of the vast foreign trafic, whose swelling tide has already been felt, the necessity of enlarging the facilities of travel and transport will become imperious. Wagon freights to the Pacific last year were estimated by reliable authority at 230,000 tons per annum, costing $13,000,000. Prior to that year at least 154,000 persons annually passed from ocean to ocean, paying for their transportation $31,000,000. The completion of the Pacific roads has doubtless, swelled these annual aggregates to 500,000 persons and $100,000,000. Oriental commerce, so long monopolized by European nations, will, ere long, pay its tribute to the American flag. The expensive caravan routes of Eastern Asia will soon be supplanted by modern railways, built by American enterprise and capital, bringing the teeming products of its mighty industrial system within the sphere of attraction of our network of public highways. The Yang-tse-Kiang, the Mississippi of China, now vexed by the paddle-wheel of the steamer,

is discharging the massive production of the great interior right opposite to San Francisco. The initial enterprise of Pacific Ocean navigation is in American hands; the Pacific mail steamers have already deflected to San Francisco an immense tide of travel and transport from Shanghai and Yokohama that would otherwise have reached Europe and America by way of the Suez Canal. The annual tonnage of San Francisco, which had increased from 765,900 in 1866 to 901,401 in 1867, cannot now be less than 1,250,000. The number of passengers arriving there in 1867 was 38,800, an aggregate which, nearly doubled in 1868, cannot fall far short of 100,000 in 1869.

The mass of Oriental commerce and travel passing across our continent must soon be greatly increased. The improvements in railway transport and in navigation will quicken the passage on both elements. The opinion is gaining ground that the time occupied in a transit from Yokohama to London across our continent will soon be reduced to three weeks-the time now required for the trip across the Pacific. The volume of transportation that we will thus be enabled to attract will transcend the capacities of any one route. We must then look to the multiplication of our trunk lines and the extension of minor cross lines. The Kansas Pacific Company, until lately known as the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, has completed its route westward from the mouth of the Kansas River to the one hundredth meridian, as authorized by the act of July 1, 1862. By act of July 3, 1866, this company was required to connect with the Union Pacific road at a point not more than fifty miles west of the meridian of Denver, Colorado. By act of March 3, 1868, it was further allowed to contract with the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company, incorporated by the territorial legislature of Colorado, for the construction, maintenance, and operation of that part of the line between Denver and Cheyenne, the point fixed by this statute for the junction of the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific lines. In this statute, however, is reiterated the requirement that the Union Pacific and all its branches shall be worked as a continuous line, a provision of inestimable public benefit.

The Kansas Pacific, by act of July 1, 1862, was entitled to a loan of government bonds to the extent of $16,000 per mile, on the line from the eastern terminus to the one hundredth meridian. The entire loan, computed on the shortest of the alternative lines of survey presented by the company, 3931 miles, amounts to $6,303,000; the length of the line. actually built, however, is 405 miles. At the date of their last annual report 440.25 miles were completed, and the directors promise vigorous efforts for constructing the entire line, hoping to reach Denver by June 1, 1870. The traffic of this route is of the most encouraging character. The quelling of Indian disturbances has given rise to a great increase of through travel, the aggregate of passengers for 1868 being 109,332, showing an excess of west-bound passengers of 10,094. Each passenger averaged 61 miles. The total amount of freight transported was 124,377 tons, showing an increase in the regular mercantile traffic over that of the previous year. The gross earnings amounted to $1,910,161 83, of which $873,667 63 were clear profit.

The foregoing routes constitute the initial system of railway commu nication across the central portion of the public domain. The enterprise in its inception was, in many respects, purely experimental. The lessons of experience which it has taught outweigh in value the immense cost. A commencement has been successfully made in the work of internal improvement, and the public mind is rapidly advancing to still more momentous undertakings. Among the points established in the

experience of the past five years is the insufficiency of a single line of railway communication from the Mississippi to the Pacific. It is the opinion of men whose position gives them ample opportunities of making up an intelligent judgment, that the local traffic created by the comple tion of the Pacific roads will, alone, constitute a splendid business, while the through traffic of American freight will absorb the residue of their capacity for transportation. When the trade from Asia is added by the existing steamship line, and by steam and sailing vessels, which will soon be put upon the Pacific Ocean routes, the inability of a single line to meet the demands will lessen confidence in the route, and drive freight and travel from Eastern Asia westward through the Suez Canal. If the Pennsylvania Central, in the presence of four powerful rivals, the New York and Erie Canal, the New York Central, New York and Erie, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads, has been compelled not only to double, but to triple, its track, to accommodate only a portion of the business of the Ohio Valley, will not the expanding trade across the continent require an increase of facilities for travel beyond any single line?

There is another aspect of the case, strongly re-enforcing the absolute necessity of several through trunk lines. Any single line will necessarily become a monopoly. It is true, Congress, in the act of July 1, 1862, reserved to itself the right to intervene, for the purpose of correcting this evil, by lowering the tariff of charges, should they become excessive; but it is not so easy for the legislative department to interfere without affecting other interests. The end in view can be secured without the compromise of any vested rights, and in a far more desirable manner, by the establishment of competitive lines. Furthermore, it must be remembered that the Union Pacific is a compromise line; that its central position was secured at the sacrifice of several prominent advantages presented by other routes that have been surveyed-advantages which, in the increased activity of commerce and travel, cannot long be ignored.

Prominent among the disadvantages of the central railway route is the great altitude at which it was found necessary to pass the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The maximum altitude of the Centrial Pacific is 7,042 feet above sea level, a grade to be overcome within one hundred miles of the sea-coast. The Union Pacific attains an altitude of 8,262 feet above sea level at Sherman's or Evans's Pass. These high elevations, during the winter, involve serious obstruction from snow. To obviate this difficulty the Central Pacific Company, as before stated, have covered some forty miles of its most exposed route with sheds of heavy timber, involving an enormous expense.

The Northern Pacific presents as one of its strong claims to public attention its comparatively low summit levels. It proposes to cross the Cascade Mountains in Washington Territory by the Snoqualmie Pass, 3,000 feet above sea level, and the highest range of the Rocky Moun tains by Cadotte's Pass, whose elevation of 6,167 feet may be reduced to 5,337 feet by a tunnel two and one-eighth miles long. Blodget's charts show that the respective points where the Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific pass the main range of the Rocky Mountains are on nearly the same winter isothermal parallel of 200 Fahrenheit, with about the same winter temperature on the adjacent plains and foot hills, and with a summit level at Cadotte's Pass 3,000 feet lower than that at Evans's Pass.

The Northern Pacific offers a pretty safe guarantee against these formidable obstructions from snow which the more southern route has