The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-02-13

sncwfor q whole week, within some twenty odd
miles Of the thrifty. town Of WILMINGTON. Such
il the romance of . railroad pleasure excursion
among the fnow drifts Of the Grand Prairie.
We have here the principal drawbacks of a
shipwreck upon some desolate island--no relief
short supplies-compelled to break up the
ship'sfurniture for fuel-to melt snow for drink
ing water, and to make "a hasty plate 0 fsonp".
of the dogs on board. Compared with these
trials, the hardsbips OF Robinson Crusoe were
holiday amusements. Sinbad the sailor, with
all his marvellous experience, was never ship.
wrecked in this Illinois winter fashion. And
they had their wreckers, too, not quite so ex-
perienced as the Barnegat wreckers, but bold,
enterprising chaps, with keen eye to the spoils
in the relief Of suffering humanity-the spoils
on the Grand Prairie, as at Barnegat, being the
first consideration, humanity the second. Cute
chaps, those Illinois teamsters, and reasonable
withal. Only ten dollars a passenger for their
transportation thirteen miles-less than a dol
lar a mile-through a snow drift! Cheap, with
the thermometer below zero, and no competi-
tion-dog cheap! ...,
But with these blockades on the small prai-
ries of Illinois, what would be the chances Of q
trip by the Pacific Railroad, supposing it to be
finished, via the South Pass, or by Col. Ben
toms more southerly central route, from New
York to the Pacific Ocean ? Between St. Louis
and the Rocky mountains there are eight hum
dred miles of prairie. now covered with snow,
deepening as you rise towards. the mountains,
Suppose q railroad train, with i've hundred pas
sengers on board, blockaded on this waste, Ave
hundred miles from. the white settlements:
What would follow? Inevitable starvation, or
the massacre Of the whole party by the Indians,
and the plundering of the train. AT the Iii
nois speed Of twenty miles q sevsn.dsys, how
long would it take q locolhOtigedtaGpake a win
ter trip from st. Louis across to San Fran.
cisco? 1t would be detained at the first station
till spring.
Here, then, in these Illinois snow drifts, we
have q nolle prosequi for the Pacific road by
the northern route, or the central route; for
who does not remember that far south Of the
proposed central route, Col. Fremont, in ls49,
was driven back with the loss of all his mules
and half his men, from his exploration, after
vainly struggling to fight his way through q
blockade Of forty feet Of snow in the noun
tains? These Illinois snow drifts have put the
quietus to the Pacific Railroad by any other
than the extreme Southern route. And there
the bowling volcanic deserts which we have
purchased Of Santa Anna, without. rain, or
wood, or water, are as terrible to the traveller
in summer as the snow drifts of the South Pass
can possibly be in winter.
Experience is a wholesome teacher; and the
enlarged railroad trains Of Illinois show US
the folly OF attempting to run the gauntlet of
the great plains and the Rocky Mountains
with a locomotive in the winter season. But
there is no danger. Of q Pacific Railroad short Of
half way discovery Of another California. In
the meantime, camels and dromedaries are per-
haps the best locomotives for our overland
travel to the Pacific. They can fatten upon the
thorny vegetation Of the deserts Of the South
ern route, and get along comfortably for a week
without water, which is the thing required for
the Gadsden country. And they have long
legs, which would enable them to walk through
the snow drifts of the Northern route, where q
railroad locomotive would stick fast and
freeze up.
We see no other chance for Colonel Benton
and General Gadsden thar to abandon their
Pacific railroads, and fall back upon the long
legged, high-backed, sure-footed and abstemi-
QUE camels and dronedaries.