The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1853-07-19
Survey. Tor n, Pacific R,iIrpad.

| The Washington Union gives the following par
ticu!ars OF the several surveying expeditions
which have been organized. under the author.
ity OF law passed at the last session of Con.
gress. with view to the selection of tho bes,
route for railroad communication between
the Atlantic and Pacific portions of fthe U. s.
Four expeditions, amply appointed, and un-
der the command of skillfnl and experienced
officers, are all ready in the field, and the re-
port of their Operations. sweeping the whole
area of our territory between the Mississippi
and the Pacific, may be expected by the first
of February next. The expeditions are entrus-
ted to choose officers of the corps of engineers,
TO whose science and skill the success of our
army in Mexico is mainly attributable. 1t is
probably not too much to say that no military
organization in tho world Can produce corps
more adequate to the successful conduct of such
work
The first of these expeditions is under the
corps, and now Governor of Washington Terri
tory and has for its object TO survey the region
stretching from the Upper Mississippi to Pu-
getts Sound 1t proceeds from St. Paups in
the Territory of Minnesota to the Great Bend
OF tho Missouri river: thence on the table land
between the Missouri and Saskatchewan rivers
to the most available pass in the Rocky Noun
tains. surveying in the best passes in the Cas-
cade range, and in the Rocy Mountains from
the 49th parallel to tho head waters of the
Missouri 1t is par, of the object of this ex
pedtion TO determine the capacity of the whole
capacity of the whole region to supply, and
of the Missouri and Columbia rivers to trans
port the materials for the proposed railroad.
We learn that n satisfactory report has been
already received from Major Stevens, given as
surancc that he is already engaged in his op-
perations far beyond the Western frontier Of
the United States. He expected to leave st.
Paurs before the first of June.
A second expedition, under the command Of
Lieut.. Whpplc, is TO survey the region of our
western territory adjacent to the parallels of 35
degrees. 1t will proceed from the Mississippi
along the head waters of the Canadian, cross
tho Rio Pecos, and enter the Valley of the
Rio del Norte near Albuquerque; thence thro'
Walkers Pass. in the Rocky Mountains, to the
Pacific at some point on the coast of Southern
California near San Pedro, Los Angeles or San
Diego.
A third expedition. under the command of
Captain Gunnison, will pass through the Rock
Mountains near the head waters of the Del
norte, by the way of the Huerfono river, in the
valley of the Green and Grande rivers; thence
westward)y along the Nicollct river of the
Great Basin; thence north TO the Lake Utah,
surveying on return route the best passes Of
the Wasateh range through the coal basin in
10 the forks of the Platte
A fourth expedition is 10 operate in Califor-
mia. It's field is the region west of the Lower
Colorado to the Pacific. This expedition, start
ing from Benicia in California, will examine
the passes Of the Sierra Nevada from the San
Joaquin and Tulare valleys, together with the
whole country southeast of the Tulare lakes,
to ascertain the best route between Walkers
pass, or any other practical passes in that re-
gion and mouth of the Gila, and from that
point to the pacific at San Diego.
Each of these expeditions is instructed and
fully prepared to subject the region assigned
to it to careful scientific survey, reference
not only TO the examination Of its capacity for
a railrord route, but also to all that may per
tain TO thorugh geographical knowledge of
tho country, including not only its topography,
but its climate. soil and productions. II is OBJ
vions that such surveys, apart from their main
object, must contribute very largely to more
accurate scientific knowledge of its vast west
crn domain of the United States. The appro-
priation made by the Congress for these sur
veys amounted to the sum of one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, and it is intended strict
ly to confne the expenses of oil the expeditions
to that amount.