The Washington union., 1857-11-20

did receive an examination by the Pacific ailrosd exped
tions had been previously versed and reported upon BY
various organized parties The fact of pros examna
ton Of the route and the republication Of part Of the
results in the report Of the Secretary Of War docs not at
feet the accuracy Of my statement in any manner what
ever
Whether the second part of the statement The
has moi reoeiead hat attention which as Importance 10 he great
Wea, and especially Missouri and Kansas dsaands lis
groundess or not can be best decided by those who
familiar ON the one hand with the advantages of the
route and the extent OF the attention it has received
and on the other with the importance OF such route
to the great West and especially to Missouri and Kansas
The fact that the route not specially examined by
expedition in connexon with the Pacihcraroad
while other routes of less Importance to Missouri and Kan
examined is Of itself sufficient in my opin-
ion to sustain the accuracy Of this part of my statement
The route trayersed in 1886 by DR., Wslizenus,
and IL is from his barometcai observations that the pro-
file which is published from the War Department OBJ
tanned The route also trayersed by Lieut. w q.
Peck of the Typographical engineers in ls47 and it is
laid down the map which accompanies the report OF
Major Emory. Neither of these examinations
deraen with special reference to the construction of
railroad to the Pacific the natural OF
the country reported upon in detail An equal II not
greater amount of information had been collected in
aton to the route from Fort smith, Arkansas TO Santa
Fe along the valley Of the Canadian river before the rail-
road explorations This route carefully surveyed and
reported upon length by Lieut. simpson, of the topo-
graphical engineers in 1919. Notwithstanding this the
route thoroughly surveyed by the railroad surveying
expedition under the command of Lieut.. a. w Whpple,
In 1853 II this comparatively untavelled route was
deemed worthy of careful resurvey, under the approp
alton for Pacific railroad surveys why should not the
route from Independence to Santa Fe which in constant
IN NJ
ern trade, receive the same attention.
The closing paragraph of Capt. HumphrcyB's letter
questions the possibility Of my having obtained nfoma
ton upon the character and Of the route which
had not already been obtained by officers employees of
the War Department--and this the ground that the
route has been frequently traversed by officers OF the
army and organized expeditions that am neither an
engineer nor surveyor and that travelled in mail
wagon. In answer to this affirm that have the high
est respect for the powers of observation OF the officers Of
army, and especially for the ability which has been
displayed by the several officers who conducted the Pa
cfc-railroad surveys They, in connexion with their
civil assistants have collected amount Of valuable in
formation upon the character and Of the regions
they travcrsed which has been cquallcd in the
history of explorations by the United States So also
the observations of Dr. Wszenus in ls46 exceed
ngly important and valuable But these explorers GER
ainly have gathered all the information which may
be procured much yet remains to be DONE The obser
vatons made but satches from yet unreaped fields Of
information broad the public domain 1t IS not only
possible, but most probable, that facts will be
brought In and further information collected by each
successive intelligent observer who the country
whether civilian officer Of the corps Of opograph-
cal engineers.
Very respectfully, your obcdent servant,
VIM r. BLAKE
Geoogist and Mneralogst.