The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-01-06

, ton, is equally in favor of it for the road.
But have some direct and positive tes-
timony on this head which the import
ance of the subject, and the value of
the testimony itself, requires to be pro-
dueed. speak of the last expedition of
Col. Fremont-his winter expedition of
3''54-and of the success which at
tended it, aud of the value of the infor-
nation which it afforded. He chose the
dead of winter for his exploration, that
ne might see the worst--see the real
difficulties, and determine whether they
could be vanquished. He believed in
| the practicability of the road, and that
his miscarriage H. l848-'49, was the
fault of his guide, not of the country -
| and he was determined to solve those
questions by the test of actual expert
ment.
With these views he set out, taking
the winter for his time, the west for his
course, straight line his object, the
mouth of the Kansas for his point of de-
parture, st. Louis and San Francisco the
points to be connected. The parallels of
38 and 80 covered his course, and be-
tween these he continued to move west
until he reached the Little Salt Lake
within three hundred miles of the Cali
fornia line after that upon slight de-
Election to the south, between the par;ll
lels 81 and 38,, until he entered Califor-
MIA. This may be called straight
line and so fulfills a primary condition
of every kind of road, and especially of a
railroad, where speed of an hundred
miles an hour may be easily attained, and
as safely run, as the third of that velocity
in a road of crooks and eurvatures.
Snow was the next consideration, and
of that he, found none, on any part of the
route, to impede any kind of travelling
On the Kansas, the Upper Arkansas, and
the HuerEno, he found none at all III
the Sand Hill pass of the Sierra Blanca,
none: in the valleys of San Luis, and the
Sahwatch, none in the Coochatope Pass,
four inches! and none if he had crossed
the day before and that was the 18th
of December, corresponding with the
time, and almost in view of the place,
where he had been buried in the SHOWS
five years before. This solved the ques-
ton of snow in the passes of the noun
tains, and showed that his miscarriage
had been the mistake of the guide, and
not the fault of the country. After that
after crossing the Rocky Mountains
the climate changes. A great ameliora-
ton takes place, which he knew before,
and then fully experienced. The re-
mainder of the route, as has been shown
in the view of the country, may be said
to have been found free from sIow-all
hundred miles at time in one place
without finding any and when found al
talls both sthin and transient. lAsld thal
this was the common winter state of the
Pass, and with an occasional exception,
has been shown by Mr.. Antoine Leroux,
and others, and corresponded with his
own theory of SHOW in the passes. : =
Here is a section of the route above
seven hundred miles long-being more
than half the distance to California-ill
which there is no elevation to arrest the
yision-in which you might look down
upon the wide distance, (if the eyesight
was long enough, and see the frontier of
Missouri from the mouth of the first pass
in the first mountain, being more than
half the length of the road. This would
do for st:trt. 1t would satisfy the call
for a fair surface mt the commencement.
This first pass is called the Sand Hill, or
Roubidoux, through which Fremont en-
tered the valley of San Luis and the
way so low and level as to be seen
Through. And through that valley and
its continuation, 1.-THE S,hwatch, to the
Cooehatope the ground is so smooth as to
present no exception to its level but the
natural curvature of the earth. Meeting
a man on horseback in this long level of
more than hundred and twenty miles,
Counting the entire valleys of San Luis
land the Sahwatch,) is like meeting a
ship at sea: YOU see his head first, then
bis body, then his horse and at last the
ground. The Pass itself, as well rs the
approaches to it, is perfect. Fremont
s
Beale and Heap say it was u question
whether they had passed the dividing
point between the eastern and western
watcfs-which could only b. answered
by referring to the water itself The
Pass itself, of which they made draw
ing, was grand and beautiful. They say
4 of it Lofty mountains, their SUBMITS
covered with eternal SHOWS, lifted their
heads to the clouds while in our immc-
diate vicinity were softly rounded hills,
clothed with grass and flowers, with rich
meadows between; through which nu-
merous rills trickled ~ join their waters
to the Coochatopc creek But why
, multiply words toinduce conviction when
, facts are at hand 10 command il. Facts
enough abound b show the facility OF
T this Pass, even in state of nature.
More than forty loaded wagons went
through il in the summer of 1853, twen-
, ty of them guided by Lrroux for Cap
tain GunniSon-the rest by emIgrant
tfamilies, without guides. Bu, more than
that: the bufk,locs haze travelled il al-
ways-those best of engineers, who's in
stinct never commits mistakes, and which
in theirmigrations for pasture, shelter, and
salt, never fail to find the lowest level ii
: THE mountains, the shallowcSt fords IN
: the rivers, the richest grass, tiie best sail
licks. the most pcrnanfnt water: and
1 ALWAYS take the shortest aud best routes
|, between all these points Of attrnction
G These instructive explorers izascrae thi'
i: Pass. and gave it tbeir l,ame-Cooclla-
: tope in the Uah language; Puerto de-
e Cf5ezos in the Spanish--whieh being
|, rendered into English signifies the Cat
E Iof the Baffaloes. And their bones and
1 horns, strewing the ground, attest theil
! former numerous presence in this locality
: before the firearms of modern invention
had come 70 their destruction at such !:
: icrowded point of rendezvous. This i
: ienough TO show that the Rocky Noun