Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-01-18


on further examination of them by
himself and the several officers who
made the particular surveys, as well as
for the results of explorations carried on
during the past year. When the report
was made in February last many of the
maps, drawings and scientific paper in
tended to form part of the report, and
which could only be prepared after an e.
Elaborate examination of the materials
collected, had not been completed for
want of time, and it became necessary to
substitute hastily prepared drawings and
preliminary reports. This was particu
larly the case with regard to the work on
the route of the 35th parallel. A mi
mute examination of the material collect
ed in that survey, has resulted in show
ing the route more practicable than it was
at first represented to be, and in reducing
to nearly one-half the original estimate,
of the officer in charge of the survey,
which indeed seemed, when they were
submitted, to be extravagant, and they
were noted in the report from this depart
ment as probably excessive.
Another feature of interest developed
in the course of the further examination
of the work, on the route of the 32d par
allel, is that the Colorado desert, which is
traversed by the route distance of 1873
miles, and which in the report referred
to was noticed as consisting of a soil that
needed only water to make it highly pro-
ductive, as in fact the delta Of the Colo
RADIO river, and according to barometric
levels, is so much lower than that stream
as to be easily irrigated from it. Thus
there is every reason to believe 1900
square miles of soil, of great fertility, of
which nearly one half is in our own ter
ritory, may be brought into cultivation, in
one unbroken tract along the route. I'm
der the appropriation made at the last
session for the continuation of those sur
ueys and other purposes, three parties
have been in the field during the past
season. One of them was directed to
make examinations with the routes of 32d
and 35th parallels. This survey has
greatly improved the aspect of the former
routes, by changing the line for nearly
half the Rio Graude, and the Pimas vii
lagos, on the ella River, from barren
ground 70 cultivatable valleys, and en-
tirely avoiding tornado of eighty miles
which occurs in that section; also by the
discovery of an eminently practicable
route through cultivable country from
the plains of Los Angeles, along the coast
and through the Salinas valley to San
Francisco The connection originally
proposed between those points, was by
way of the valley of San Joaquin and
the Great Basin.
The attention of this party was also
directed to an examination into the prac-
ticability of procuring water along GER
tain parts of the route where it is now
deficient. The report shows that it may
be obtained by common wells at distances
of about twenty miles.
From the result of this exploration,
moreover, it appears practicable to obtain
at small expense, good wagon road,
supplied with water by common wells,
from the Rio Grande down the San Pc
dro and ella, and across the Colorado
desert Such road would be of great
advantage. Military operation would ia
cilitate the transportation of the mail
across that country, and relieye enigrants
pursuing that route from much of the diff
fculty and suffering which they encoun-
ter.
A second party was charged with the
duty of testing the practicability of pro-
curing water by artesian wells on the Lii
ano Estocado, an arid plain which has
been heretofore described as a desert
The experiment has so far demonstrated
is pra cticability as to leave little doubt as
to its final success. 1t will be continued,
however, until the problem shall have
been fully solved.
The examinations into the feasibility of
causing subterranean streams to flow up
on the surface from Artesian wells, though
J undertaken in connection with the prac-
ticability of a railroad, they should prove
, entirely successful will have a value be-
yond their connection with that object, in
) the reclamation of region which is now
: a waste, and its adaptation to the pastoral
: and perhaps the agricultural uses of man.
: The third party was directed to con-
| duct an exploration from the Sacramento
| to the Columbia river, with a view to as
certain the practicability of a route to
| connect the valleys of those rivers. The
L I 4 Il